At Odds, Comedic… Timing
A.V. Walters
Not so much compost, after all.
I drove into town the other day and was amazed that, almost overnight, lawns have turned green. There are swollen buds and tiny baby leaves on the lilacs and flowering quince. The tips of the maples are giving it away, too. In early spring, before they actually leaf out, their buds have a rosy glow to them. Across the valley, the areas with maples are blushing. The cherry orchards are blushing, too. Not blooming, but with a sort of out-of-focus burgundy haze. So, the landscape says spring.
The weather report? That’s another thing, entirely. Day-time temps in the low forties, and snow! I kid you not. They’re calling for snow, up to 2 inches cumulatively, over the next two days. It won’t stick; the ground has already warmed up. The Road Commission has lifted the frost restrictions from secondary roads. But we’ve seen snowflakes this morning already. It makes us wonder if we have our timing right.
Last week we had 45 yards of compost delivered. It sounds like a lot, but it isn’t. It looks like we have a really bad case of gophers. We’ll be digging it in deep to prep for the orchard trees (which should arrive next week.) The rest will be for the garden. We are on the threshold of gardening, but for that snow thing.
Spindly
But growing by the day.
We’re still perched in a tiny apartment, across from our new digs. There are space and light issues here, mostly because we’re now sharing space with building materials and with hundreds of seedlings in peat pots. We used our seed favorites from Two Rock and have been pleased with a more than generous germination rate. (Oh, no! I’ll have to cull!) The only things that haven’t come poking up through the soil yet are the peppers (and, some questionable crook-neck squash seeds.) Peppers are notoriously picky about seedling temperatures–they like it warmer than we keep the house! I hope they’ll pop up soon. Everything else is up and growing. I certainly hope we didn’t start them too early. Like comedy, in gardening, timing is everything. Hopefully the joke’s not on us.
It’s snowing out there, right now. There’s a little anxiety, and a lot of hope, in the mix.
tworockchronicles 
Did the gophers follow you from Two Rock?
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Actually, the piles really are 45 yards of compost. There are gophers here–one keeps trying to burrow under the driveway–but not like Two Rock (land of gophers and spiders.)
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What do you do about gophers? We get them and have a heck of a time getting rid of them–especially humanely.
Love spring with all the new beginnings. Hate it when Mother Nature tricks us with a cold snap. I hope your plants do well.
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Oh, I must confess that my view of gophers doesn’t include humane dispatch. In Two Rock, we planted the whole garden in buckets to deal with our voracious gophers. (The buckets ended up addressing a number of garden issues and were initially the starting point for this blog.) We weren’t in favor of poisoning gophers–not because we’re nice, but because the cats might then eat the poison gophers. There were various traps, with limited success. In my surlier moments, I fantasized about the Rodenator, a propane probe contraption that one inserts into the burrow entry and—then one pulls the trigger to detonate the whole mess.
So far, my plants are indoors, and faring well.
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In my hard-won experience, it’s the soil temperature that drives success with seedlings, not so much as the air temperature (frost aside!). One tip that seems sensible: pull mulch away from the soil where you plant to allow the sun in in spring, otherwise the insulation is just keeping the cold in. Have had good experience with planting bags (that slip over three stakes, to create a bit of shelter for sensitive seedlings, like tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. Good luck!
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I agree that soil temperature is the magic ingredient. Outdoor soils are nowhere near warm enough for germination yet. My pepper problem is with indoor germination. Peppers like 70 degrees–65 minimum. Since we’re starting seeds indoors–the best we can do is our indoor temperature (usually 63 or so.) Fingers crossed for peppers.
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Dynamite the gophers ala Bill Murray! ;-0
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I have a funny story about that. Maybe I’ll blog it.
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