Month: February 2014

So much for our lovely warm weather.  The other day we woke to foggy weather.  Today we woke up to cold drizzly weather.  Cold has been 35 to 37 since 6 AM and its now 4 PM.  Drizzly, we’ve had enough rain to measure on the weather gauge, but we’ve only had .16 inches and its taken 4 hours to get that.  Its just been a damp cold web day.  But tonight we might get just below freezing, we may hit 31 tonight.

So this morning we jumped up and covered plants we could cover.  Did not do anything with the fruit trees.  For those, I’m just hoping for the best.  Tomorrow we should hit 61 and on Friday we should hit 76.  So its just one of those things – a short cold spell.  Don’t know if its the last one of the season or not.

Oh, and I have carrots, lettuce, radishes, and some pea plants popping out of the ground already.  That’s why we had to jump up this morning and cover them.  Don’t want to lose them.

We’ve had nice consistent weather lately.  Had some fog in the morning, just a day or so ago.  But it burned off by afternoon to nice mid 70 degree weather.  Today its 3:30 PM and a nice 75 degrees outside.  The 10 day forecast shows night low not lower than 41, with most nights between 45 and 54 so the nights are not so cold I have to cover anything.

We bought some more large pots for the garden.  They are large plastic half barrel pots.  I have transplanted two berry plants into two of them, put a fig tree (Celeste) in one, and put yukon gold potatoes in the fourth pot.  I have planted 10 more strawberry Sequoia plants in the square planter I used last year.  I did put more potting soil in it.  I also put in 3 asparagus plants (Jersey Giant) in a bed.

The radishes appear to be coming up already, they have leaves.  Some of the lettuce and the mesclun also are popping out of the ground with leaves too.  All in all, I’m hopeful for the coming year.

I’m going to wait until we hit March 1 to plant any more seeds.  By then we’re more likely to be past any frost, the soil will definitely have warmed and I can grid out one more planter.

I’m getting excited.

We’ve had a cold few days here.  But yesterday we hit the mid 60’s and today, Friday, we made it to 81 degrees briefly.  And we should stay in the mid to high 70’s for the next week.  How’s that for weird weather.

But I took the time today and started planting a few things.  I put in:

• Sugar Ann Snap Peas
• Champion Radish
• Lettuce Master Chef
• Broccoli Major Hybrid
• Carrot Scarlet Nantes
• Little Marvel Pea

We’ll see what if anything comes up.

I also took some time to slash at the cactus.  We have a cactus patch I’m trying to keep under control.  It has spines so I’m not trying to let it grow.  I’d rather kill it off.  We have cactus in other areas of the yard, but this patch is just in a bad spot.

Another lovely day in paradise.  Yesterday we hit the low 70’s, it was nice and sunny outside.  Today not so much.  The temperature dropped over the evening and has been sitting at a nice cozy 38 degrees since about 7AM.  This may well be our high temperature for the day.  Tonight its supposed to drop to about 33, then tomorrow’s high should be about 38 with tomorrow low of just below freezing – 30.  By Thursday we should be low 60’s the Friday in the 70’s.  Not sure if this is our last cold front of the season or not.  Time will tell.

But with the warm weather we did get a grid down on one of the beds.  We ran out of stakes so I need more of those.  We didn’t exactly do them as one foot square blocks, like those used in square foot gardening.  The garden beds are roughly 4 feet by 10 feet.  Roughly.  They actually measure more like 4’2″ by 10’5″.  And those measurements are rough since the walls are actually made from blocks that are not exact.  The blocks have lots of bumps and lumps so its not quite precise.  But its close enough.  So the squares are basically 1 foot by 16 inches, or 1 foot by 1 foot 4 inches (1′ x 1’4″).  Close enough to work with.

Since we were warm yesterday we set up one grid.  With the cool weather today, I’ll wait until it warms and then I’ll begin some planting.  We’ll see how that goes.  But at least this time I can get things in early.

Today we went out to Lowe’s and I picked up a fig tree, grape vine, potato starters and some more seed – corn and sweet small peppers.  So I expect to be able to begin planting sometime this week.  Hopefully.  And hopefully I’ll get a better crop this year.

Its been a cold past few days.  Today, Saturday, we’ve begun to warm back up.  Thursday never really warmed up at all.  It just stayed cold, below 32/freezing cold. Yesterday, Friday it took until the afternoon until we got above freezing.  Then last night stayed just above freezing, 34 for the night.  But today since about 7AM it has begun to warm up.  Its about 12:30 PM, just after noon and we’re already up to 56.  Its still cool but not as cold as it was a few days ago.

So now maybe its time to start thinking about the planters.  I need to get actual measurements for the four planters.  Then I need to start thinking about what I’m going to plant where.

Another cold front came thru last night.  At 5PM yesterday we were at 40 degrees, it was downhill since then.  We’ve been at freezing or below since 9PM.  And we’ve been at 22/23 degrees since about 6AM today.  Its now 10:30 AM and its still 22/23 degrees.  The weather is just hovering between the two temps.  Though the good news is its been more in the 23 degree mark.

At this rate we’ll be able to grow apples in this region easily.  It has definitely been a cold winter here.

Its now after 1:30 PM and we’ve only hit 25.  I won’t bet on making it to 40 today.  And our low for tonight is supposed to be 27/28 degrees.  We’ll have to warm up to make that!

Okay, at 5PM we still only made it to a high today of 28, still below freezing.  They say we should still be a low tonight of 27/28.  That would mean the temperature should be steady from now thru the night.  We’ll see if that happens.  I’m betting on another cold night.

Weird.  We hit a high of 61 yesterday (Thursday).  Today (Friday) at 10:45 AM its already 60.  And yet next week we might hit a low of 27.  So who know what the weather will bring.

Sorry, didn’t post this on Friday.  Now its Saturday (the day before Super Bowl Sunday football game).  At 9:30 AM it is already 66 degrees outside.  Tomorrow night (Sunday night) it should be down to freezing and later this week we should hit freezing nights again.  Quite a roller coaster of weather.