February 26, 2017
Plant your peas people. The old adage was they need to be in the ground by St Patrick's day so that they would mature before the summer heat arrived. That was March 17 th, but our new last date of frost means that somewhere around now is optimal. I planted mine on February 2nd, just like I told you to, and we've had so much rain that I think they rotted in the ground :(..
I Hula hoed a patch of dirt right next to them at the same time and all the weeds that were laying on their sides re grew their roots and are now horizontal weeds. They look like aliens..
February 27, 2017
My old gardening almanac indicates that the first week in March is when you can direct seed carrots, beets, spinach, lettuce, radishes and Swiss chard, so I brought my seeds down to the garden. It turns out that most of my garden is still unworkable. We had a dry spell that allowed me to transplant out broccoli and cauliflower but the rains returned and most of the soil is soggy again..
All I have to do is drag the handle of the Hula hoe through the ground to make a shallow trough so I'm planting in all the high ground. It's forcing me to rotate my crops..
February 28, 2017
The Fawn Iilys have finally started coming up. It's fun to know the names of some of the wildflowers. Next up should be the Mariposa Lily's. My Shallots finally came up too. I had pretty much given up on them. It turns out I had planted them too deeply..
The tip of the bulb should be at soil level, and I planted them like onion sets. They come up like pineapple tops, and each shoot will produce a small bulb. I'll water them and weed them, fertilize them and harvest them, dry them, cure them and bring them up to the house for the cook who bought them. The hardest part will be when she asks me how they taste not to say " Tastes Shallot like onion "..
