Gardening Chronicles: Warmth & Growth
What a gorgeous day! After being cooped up inside all week due to the flu (that mess is no joke), I was ready to check on our little sprout-babies. Although now, many of them have progressed to sproutlings.
I was worried about our white acre pea babies as I’ve read they do not handle the cold very well. Last night it was supposed to get down to 31 degrees, so I fretted like any good garden-mama would. Chad reassured me, “Babe, they’ll be fine.”
He was right. There they were, standing straight and tall seemingly un-phased by last nights temperatures. I do think the plastic mulch is helping tremendously to keep the soil warm and the moisture locked in.
We did, however, decide to reinforce this by putting some hay around our tomatoes and white acre peas. This is also another way to cut down on pesky weeds (random fact: nut grass, we learned today, is the #1 worst weed…coconut grass is #3…not sure about #2).
Now I feel as though they will be warmer tonight although I think all chances of freezing are probably past since we are in mid-March (what?).
As I mentioned, the sprout-babies have developed into sproutlings. Here are some of the developments:
White Acre Peas:
Pole Beans:
Squash (It’s hard to tell from this picture, but they have really taken off):
Collards:
Cucumbers (still sprout-babies):
Carrots (little carrot-top babies):
Onions (so tempted to pull them because they look like weeds to me):
Romaine (still a baby):
The watermelon and cantaloupe are very small still and many of them did not take. We’ll see what happens. The potatoes were just planted a week ago and have not sprouted yet. The tomato and bell pepper transplants are doing well and have grown taller as well as developed more foliage.
Farmer Tom things using plastic mulch is “working on magic.” Guess that means we have no idea what we’re doing but it seems to be working. “Seems to be” is the operative word. Although, I will admit I pray over our garden.
My mom keeps telling me if all our white acre peas yield, we will need to quickly look for an electric pea sheller. I seem to recall bleeding under my finger nails as a kid after shelling peas all day. I’ve started looking.
On the home-growing front, our herb-babies (as my friend, Sara, has rightly named them) are doing splendid (basil, oregano, cilantro, and chives). They looked a little down today though. Right now they are basking in the sunshine. Also, some tomato and onion starters we thought had been washed away by the rain, began to poke through the soil. I have to admit, I had left them for dead. But there they were.
The Chad laughs at how excited I get over this gardening thing. I just hope I don’t get equally as sad if we lose more than we gain. Either way, I have been careful to go in with realistic expectations. The fact that in one week we had sprout-babies already far exceeded my expectations. So, I think we’re good.
