Rain and cold and more rain and cold! We are experiencing what is known as a late spring. As a result, our planting and eventual harvest dates get pushed back and many of the seeds that have been sown will germinate late or not at all. This isn’t unusual. Some of you may recall the spring two years ago when we had low temperatures in the teens this time of year. That year it was especially disastrous because it followed a warm spell that caused most of our fruiting trees to blossom. Fortunately, seeds are relatively cheap. I will probably just end up planting right on top of the ones I planted in March.
Other news:
• I have an entire fencing system coming in the next day or two. I’m looking forward to having a deer free zone to plant into.
• Karen and I ended our negotiations with the county on creating enough parking space for Monday nights. We had originally hoped to create parking along the road but that idea wasn’t popular with the county engineer that we talked to and we had some safety concerns. On March 31st, the county put in an entrance so that people can park on the grassy hill just east of our place.
• We had just enough dry weather before the rains to enable me to plant a first round of spring crops in late March. However, given the cool, wet weather we may have to push back our opening day to May 11th or even May 18th.
• I can use some extra hands on some of the weekends coming up. If you might have a Saturday afternoon free and don’t mind some (wo)manual labor, please let me know and I’ll add you to the small but growing list of possible weekend garden helpers. Vajo came out last Saturday and helped me dig, clean, move and organize some of the thousands of bricks we have where gardens need to go.
• Ana is selling tomatoes again this year. Send her an email to anacurtis@macomb.com if you would like to order from her this year. She will be growing some of the favorites from years past plus some new promising varieties.