April 16, 2018
Mid April is a good time to get your mounds covered in plastic. I use 3' squares of clear plastic because it let's the sun in to heat the soil and prevents the heat from leaving. You know how your car heats up in the sun when the windows are up? Same principal. The cool evening breezes don't waft away the heat that builds up during the day either. The moisture that condenses on the under side of the plastic, drips off through your mulch, and carries micro nutrients down to the soil organisms, so you're fertilizing the ground before you plant..
The warming soil awakens the microbes and they start eating and reproducing so that the ground will be teeming with life when you plant. I plant transplants in holes cut in the plastic after the danger of significant frost has past. I plant seeds under the plastic and cut holes in it when they germinate..
April 17, 2018
Awoke to the sound of wind turbines again this morning. I guess being 400' above the valley floor means we are not really catagorized as being in zone 8b, even though the USDA has said we are. My neighbor gets it. It's seems like a long winter, maybe because I'm impatient. I need to get a winter hobby..
Sitting in front of the fake fireplace rocking with my eyes closed probably doesn't qualify as a hobby, but I end up thinking about gardening, and usually eventually get up and go out and do some. As I've said before my wet weather gardening usually consists of trimming bushes and vines, raking leaves, and hauling compost. These chores keep me standing up and warming up until I go into the greenhouse to sit. Repeat until hungry..
April 17, 2018
I learned a lot about row covers this last winter. Not because I used them, but because I covered my spinach and chard with portable cold frames, and started harvesting by the handful at the time when my spring spinach would be beginning to produce. I've seen the row covers used locally by commercial growers and now I know why. Not only are they able to get produce to market early, but the leaves are milder tasting and need less cleaning. Early leaf lettuce is possible with row covers too, and probably more profitable in early spring when supply is limited..
I'll use my cold frames over my beets too next winter, and plant fall Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach for the sole purpose of covering it. I may not be as successful as last winter, because it was a mild one, but the more rows I cover the better chance I'll have. I have not, in the past, had any idea of how much the birds were eating..
