Tradtion says that if March comes in like a Lion it’ll go out like a Lamb, visa versa.
That’s what I learned as a small child in Pennsylvania.
It’s not a useful saying in The South though. In any case, March 1 and 2 have been blustery, windy, but nice days. Lots of wind gusts and high breezes, warm temperatures. Clouds and sun. We may have some showers today, it’s rather overcast now, but a high overcast, not that low oppressive type.
If you’ve seen my eggreport you know that we have eggs being laid now. Just the fourth day in a row now. For us it’s a true herald of Spring. Last year, our new pullet Leghorns began laying in March. This year, our Wyandottes (brand spanking new hens, not pullets anymore!) started off the second to last day of February, and the first Leghorn hen laid today.
Our Weeping Willow tree is putting out green leaves, won’t be very long before it’s flushed out full. That’s a sight I love.
All the other trees are getting their buds ready, won’t be long there either. Peonies have magenta nubs coming up from the ground, some other perenials are showing their growth as well.
My herbs, I transplanted some from my regular garden into my small herb garden. I’m filling it in piece by piece, and hope to do a lot of work on it this Spring. Well, my Chives are starting to take off just the last couple of days since I’ve moved them. It’s the weather, the time to do it. I moved them by disturbing them the least I could, I transferred them as large chunks of earth and roots, into loose-soil filled holes. This is their second seaons on growth. I bought them as a 4″ pot Spring 2003, and divided them into three parts. I decided to do that as an economical way to get three distinct plants going, but not expecting them to be huge for quite awhile. Start small, wait for full development in time.
As for time, I also have a few varieties of Thyme. I transferred my German Thyme from the regular garden as well. So now there are Wooley, English and German varieties. They were all new small pots of herbs in Spring 2003. I expect them to take off better this year. All the herbs that survived the winter kept growing some during the winter. I also have Curled Parsely, still in the regular garden — it’s supposed to be an annual, but stayed small and green all winter, and is super green and growing in size now the last week. I ‘m debating on moving it or not. I think I may leave it be. I have my lettuce right next to it. I’m doing things this year that I haven’t done the past few that I’ve gardened with purpose.
I’ve wanted to do lettuce, but didn’t do any. Finally I have four little leaf lettuce plants out there. They were planted yesterday, and should be ready in 5 weeks. It’s not as cool as maybe they’d prefer, this week anyhow, but we shall see what happens. I have six Walla Walla onions set. 110 days, maybe they’ll work, maybe they won’t. I have to be careful and figure out what to feed them, so that they’ll stay sweet. High maintenance? Maybe. I *usually* garden au naturel, not feeding, just planing and watering as needed, and treating for worms (started that last year) if need be. I intend to figure out what to plant where for best pest deterent stuff naturally, and to figure out what’s good to follow in the same spot next year. Right now, I’m just winging it. The way I do too much 😉
I want to get some pole beans started soon, and be sure to plant some more in stages, to have beans sooner and later, and see what’s the best, and all that in terms of planting when, etc.
Tomatoes, I want to find plants that are heirloom, not starting them from seed myself (I just like some things in plants better than fooling with seed) I’ll put them in a different place than I did last year. Whatever tomotoes I find to plant.
I’m going to put some veggies next to the deck too, where I’ve let scraps go to rot over the years (and had tomato and canteloupe and onion sprout themselves nicely). So I’ll see what I can do about a narrow garden that can be tied to the deck for trailing beans and such. (easy pickin too!)
I’ll be throwing sunflower seeds out in some places to get flushes of them, in stages if I can do that. I’ve grown to really love them. I just use the bird seed I buy for the birdies, black oil sunflowers. Maybe I’ll get fancy and get something special in a packet to try as well. (the birds always plant some sunflowers themseleves around the feeders, as well as millet) Last year I accidentally spilled a bunch of sunflower seeds around the big feeder in the back yard, and it was a circle of wonder not so long later.
Out front I scattered extra under the feeder, to get more flowers than we had the year before. I’ve got to get some feeders cleaned and fixed now. Our big backyard one fell over a couple of weeks ago in a wind storm. I’ll be trying to install it on the railing of the deck instead now, once I get some areas re-nailed. It’s done-for on the post in the ground.
Well, that’s a slight garden/weather update, I feel like I’ve written some of this before, but I sure couldn’t find where … not that I looked very hard, mind you. So if there’s duplication of data, please don’t fret.