So after the surprise 65F night time low, the next night was 31F! and even with the covers, pretty much everything under there took a hit from the cold. Don’t know if they’re dead dead, or just the top leaves and the plants will recover. Since we’re still have COLD again, will just wait to replant
Even the best laid plans . . .
one can tell if someone has died, or moved, as there will a glut of something at the thrift. Sometimes its 10 pairs of size 11 shoes, or an entire rack of size 22 high fashion dresses.
Today, it was knitting books. Picked up just two, at $2 each! both hardbacks, the swirl coat book I got because the entire swirl coat thing really fascinates me. Don’t know if I’ll ever knit one, but at least if I want to, I’ll have the patterns to do so. What I’d really like is a swirl vest. doubt that its much different, but will require careful thought.
Meanwhile, the author claims that it requires basic knitting skills and only one seam for the entire coat!
Instead of it being cooler last night than the night before, it was actually 20 degrees warmer!
So much for science
After several days of 80+ temps, and nights dropping into the maybe 50’s (fahrenheit), this morning it hit 41F. It still got up to 85, but since I’d put squash and eggplant and tomatoes in the ground over the weekend, 41F is important.
So checked the weather report and see tonight is to be cooler with each night through the weekend cooler and cooler again, until we get back into the low/mid 20’s!
NOT squash, eggplant, and tomato weather.
Fortunately, I have these things. The round ones are pop ups, the long ones are spring steel frames, with the ends zippered into place.
The one problem with all these is, its windy!!!! and even the serious screw down tent pegs don’t stand a chance when the soil is soft and loose ( go ahead, ask me how I know. Bet you can guess, huh? Been there and lost!) . Hence they are all weighted down. Hopefully, they will handle the winds.
Which is why I planted heavily in the greenhouse already. Potato plant to the left, turmeric next two in and the last one is a mix of sweet potato and white potato
new for this year, bush beans. that stuff that looks like grass IS; sweetgrass
Sweetgrass to the left, two cocozelle squash in the tall black containers, some geraniums, hopefully some ginger in the back, a nice early girl tomato plant and back to the turmerics.
Drought year so am cutting back seriously on my garden this year, going for quality and quantity in certain things over a more general range of plants. Didn’t even grow garlic this last winter, still have lots from last year!
We’re beginning drought cycle and while we’re just barely mid-April, we are not expecting any meaningful precip until sometime in July, if we are lucky.
So have cut back on my veggie garden this year. Actual time to work on it is partially the reason, and water is the rest. Have only 3000 gallons of water storage, and wasted 350 gallons of that with leaving my smaller tank open one day. Thoroughly watered some trees, but left nothing for the veggies until our next downpour.
3000 gallons sounds like a lot, but in the dry heat of the southwest, it just enough to water the garden for 30 days in full production. That’s with the use of Ollas, mulch and shade cloths.
Saturday I prepared one 3.5 x 15′ garden bed. Lots of organic material, buried 4 ollas, each over a gallon and intended to water an area of 2feet radius around the Olla. Then planted some seedlings. Filled the Ollas, and drenched the soil. and by today, Monday, the Ollas were empty.
Today prepped the other matching bed, buried four more ollas and planted some squash. Also prepared a container for peas with two small ollas. Filled the Ollas and drenched the soil.
We’re already hitting the 80’s and the shade cloths might have to go up soon. usually, its mid-may.
Am blessed that I don’t HAVE to have that food, we have an excellent farmer’s market and we make enough income to be able to utilize it. And we have water available through the taps and I can afford to buy that water as well as chlorine filters to keep it suitable for the garden.
Still, there is a certain satisfaction from knowing my food is LOCAL, as local as it can get when it comes from my back yard. and I feel that I’m helping the environment when I’m not having to tap the local aquifer.
Hopefully, the smaller garden will be productive and help make up for its lack of size with its quality of produce!
speaking of which: squash and tomatoes are forming in the greenhouse and the first bush beans are coming up in there too.
PLUS
the amaryllis that I put in there last winter is blooming beautifully again!
This is cooked butternut squash. seven servings, 140 grams total. We all know what it takes to cut up and cook a squash. If you only want a side serving for one, what do you do with the rest? Spent a long weekend cooking squash – both butternut and spaghetti. Have done this before with the butternut, but not such a large quantity. The spaghetti squash usually gets frozen, but did dehydrate a serving of that too as an experiment. Its nice to be able to cook and put aside for later use without having to take up lots of freezer space.
Fried egg on a biscuit. Now that I’m gluten free, my husband has to live with store bought biscuits. It happens that a large canning ring is the exact same size as a Pillsbury Grand. Grease the inside well, screw threads up, start egg frying. He likes easy over, so a quick flip onto some ham, and the rings pop right off. Flip back, some cheese on top of the ham (or do it the other way around) and onto the biscuit half.
 | carolee on spring is springing |
 | morgaineotm on gf non fried chicken |
 | SaraC on gf non fried chicken |
| morgaineotm on seeds |
 | megadiversepiedmont on seeds |
