March in Review

  The final day in March, a month entered with high hopes and big plans after a frigid January and a very dismal February.  The photo taken this morn says it all, “Not much progress.”  Let’s hope it’s the final snow for 2019 as well.    I ran out before breakfast to snap some photos.  The sun was just beginning to bring lovely pink, coral and gold tones to the distant trees, suggesting that it will be our EIGHTH sunny day this month, not a very high percentage.  Garlic is the only green poking out of the blanket of snow…

which has fallen so gently and remain undisturbed that it is able to stand thickly even on the thin wire of the pea fence.    The water that accumulates in the low spots of the “level” potager has frozen solid, creating black skating areas to be avoided (especially when out trudging about in pj’s and holding a camera!)  The winds that brought cold air and the snow angled the poor tree rose before filling its recently pruned top with snowflakes.    I wonder how many snowflakes it took to do that…or to “bedazzle” all the chicken wire fence that surrounds the potager with balls of ice.  The lavender slope was not looking very happy before this snow.  Too much rain and too little sunshine in the past three months to suite its cultural requirements.  It may look better today than it will after the snow melts.    So, the final day of March is snow-covered, but appears that it will be sunny, so it may not last long.  It had rained in abundance several times recently, so the soil is super-saturated indicating that it will be several more days before any planting or gardening can be done.  And it will be interesting to see how the few things planted this month handle so much moisture and cold.  The peas were just beginning to sprout and may be okay.  There was no sign of the rhubarb, and I’m worried that it has rotted because normally it is up and growing before this.  The Italian dandelions that were listed as perennials rotted, their fleshy carrot-like roots were mush.  Fortunately, there were a few seeds left in the packet resulting in 5 plants recently transplanted in the basement.  The March total for transplants is 2,412, of which 1440 are snug in the greenhouse.  The total varieties seeded to date is 91, with the next seeding scheduled for April 1st.  Another 1/2 lb. of spinach was harvested from the poly-tunnel this month, with high hopes that additional menu items will be added in April, despite its reputation as being “the cruelest month.”  Farewell, March!

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