| Ever since it stopped being zero degrees and got back to a semblance of weather normalcy here, I've been working like the proverbial Dog.
I posted one last diary on the Beta right before I crashed that night. I think they were waiting until then to open the new site to the world! Anyway, that was a pretty short diary in which I noted that I planned to devote some time between then and now to digging. And I did, by golly.
If you can do it, about an hour a day of digging is not a bad thing. My digging muscles are not entirely in practice and I turned my weak ankle a few weeks ago, so my efforts to dig an hour a day failed after a bit, but I have gotten some little patches dug and even planted. I'm looking forward to heirloom sweet peas, spinach (commercial Savoy and an heirloom variety), Amish snap peas, and heirloom chioggia beets coming up soon, as the current weather event is running into the 80's.
I've given up on seasons. Sure, we will still have things that look like seasons, but I like to keep ahead of the game. I'm making my plans more around weather events. I cannot tell you how much I wish I had a lot of really good greenhouses. Or, alternately, had some friends who did, with whom I could work.
And as far as planting perennials goes; my planning has also changed accordingly. You are going to have to be a perennial that's hardy across a lot of zones before you catch my interest, these days.
The terrible cold that hit here a few weeks ago killed a lot of things. It will be awhile before we know the extent of the damage. Since I moved to Eddy County in 1996, I've never seen three days in a row when it did not get above freezing, or got down to the low single digits or below at night, let alone both.
So far, the palm trees all look very bad. The oleanders froze down a lot, and the Agave americanas (century plants, the big ones from Mexico) frequently flopped. Though not always.
I don't grow any of that, but it's interesting to observe these things.
My Hall honeysuckle, which is evergreen, looks terrible, but it's starting to bud out from the vines again. Very impressive.
Lots of my spineless prickly pear just fell over. That surprised me. I was trying to grow it as a fence. Huh.
I thought about clearing out all the parts that fell over (some broke off, some didn't), and then I decided to just leave it be, since maybe it will just all kind of implode and mulch out the Bermuda grass and grow stalks back up from the pads even thicker and denser and otherwise even more happy, which would be very good.
The Bermuda grass did not die, alas. I did not expect it to, with its roots down to two feet. I did note a sprout the other day from an above ground stolon, which was beyond irritating. Bermuda? Bermuda? This stuff needs a new name. Something like "Bite Me Grass."
I haven't started making potting soil yet because I still have all this digging to do. The part of the garden I want to finish right now is heavily sun exposed. Great for a late winter-early spring garden here, but more problematic in late spring and summer, and I expect a warm dry spring and who knows what summer will bring.
Starting plants from seeds in pots here is not as rewarding as it might be. Things change so quickly. Once you get to late March, you might as well just prepare your soil well and put in pretty young seedlings that have gotten past damping off potential, and put cloches over them if you get a late frost.
I've experimented with cloches a fair deal. A cloche is a container that you invert over your plant to keep the heat in. Wikipedia defines it in part, as a row cover; and that's quite appropriate too.
What works best for me is plastic buckets and large plastic pots. I've tried cut-off gallon milk jugs but they really are too flimsy. A big plastic bucket especially is thick enough to provide a lot of insulation. I've gotten frost-sensitive seedlings past several degrees of frost this way. You can leave the buckets over them for a few days (though it does help to take them off during the day if it warms up some). Put a rock on the top in case it gets windy.
In different climates, people make and use cloches that have little holes at the top, for ventilation. This can be used to generally warm up your plant. I haven't experimented with using cloches thusly, but there is no reason not to. I could especially see using some kind of warming ventilated coverings for peas, here.
I've always had trouble growing peas here in southeast New Mexico. I've tried planting them in the fall, and they do tend to survive (though I don't know if they would have this year), but they freeze back with anything more than light freezes. They come back from the roots but they don't make any peas until it stops freezing, and then it gets hot and they die off.
I've had a little better luck with sweet peas, but still, I tend to put them in spots with southern exposure during the winter.
On the bright side, I've had very good luck with spinach and beets here, when I get it together to plant them early enough. Last fall would have been good. But now is good too. They overwinter very well, and are happy with our limey soil and tap water.
Otherwise, I have a lot of stuff I want to start from seed for the warm season, but I'm quite concerned that the warm season is going to be even too much more warm than it usually is.
One day at at time...and make hay while the sun doesn't shine quite too hard? |
