I am struggling to figure out our new weather pattern. This is the third year we have had freezing temperatures in December and warming in February. It is supposed to be 90 degrees tomorrow!!! As long as I can remember, before this started, we got our freezes in February, with a warming pattern beginning in April or so. I have put off sowing flower, oat, and alfalfa seeds and now I wonder if it is too late.
Since I have started working two jobs, the garden and animals have taken a back seat in life. Previously, when the warm weather hit I was outside watering three times a week. I can't do that any more, so this weekend I am working on some irrigation piping to water the fruit trees and for the horse's water bucket, and re-orgazing the hose mess in the yard to something a little better.
After some months, we lost both chickens that we were given as rescues, learning a valuable lesson. I hope they did not pass any sickness to the rest of my flock. No more chicken rescues for me. It is a terrible idea to introduce new birds into a healthy flock if you are not 100% sure they are healthy.
I need to revise my mulching plan, as the stacking idea I used last year did not work as well as I wanted. Flies seem to love watermelon pieces, and we had a problem with them laying eggs in the mulch. I don't have grass, or much leaf mulch yet, so the kitchen scraps did not have help. A screened in vermaculture composter will work better for the kitchen scraps.
Also, trying to grow sweet potatoes in large pots of soil mixed with hay did not work as advertised. I will try my stacking mulch bins this year as potato beds. Another idea I came across online. The problem with hay is that is compacts and mulches, so after a few months there is no more planting medium.
This winter I planted peas, broccoli, kale, and brussel sprouts. The kale looks good, and the brussel sprouts are ready to start growing stems. I waited to plant, with the crazy weather that went from 90 degrees in November to freezing in December, and somewhere in there three inches of rain in two days. Some creature went through my peas and ate many of the seeds. The remaining few are sprouting. One of the garden plots I used does not get sun in the winter apparently, being shaded by house and trees, so those broccoli plants did not grow.
The heirloom tomatoes I planted did not grow in the summer. I learned that they need temps about 70 to produce fruit. They started producing in December, but really did not do well and had lots of black spots and holes eaten in them by every bug around.
Also, I bought a package of bone meal for the garden and set it in there until I could spread it. Some creatures found it delicious, ripped the package apart and ate it all. Coyotes? Rats? who knows.
All in all, this year has been a pretty steep learning curve for the garden.
