Design

A couple of wonderfully sunny warm winter days were perfect for gardening. I tidied up a forlorn bunch of winter pots and flats (removing frost-nipped plant remnants) and turned over blocks in the main vegetable garden (primarily to help decrease root-knot nematode numbers). I sowed some arugula (a mustard relative that apparently produces compounds that inhibit nematodes) in one of the blocks. It won't germinate for awhile, since the soil is still very cold (~38°F). My plan is to harvest the arugula as the weather gets warmer (and the arugula spicier!) and replace it with French marigolds, which have a similar depressive effect on root-knot nematode numbers. So basically the main vegetable garden will be fallow (vegetable-wise) over the summer and can be brought back into production next season. In its place, I'll be growing tomatoes, peppers, beans, and squash in new raised beds (yet to be constructed). Flats of mesclun, rougette de Montpellier lettuce (a red butterhead va...

It didn't feel like winter today; it was more like spring, with highs in the low 60's (°F). But the scene was the browns, greys, and greens of winter in Southeastern North America. Quite nice.

Because we often travel during winter break, our relatively mild winters in the Southeastern US seem even shorter. We're fortunate to be able to travel in December; without family obligations (our families are far-flung and independent at this point), it's an excellent time to visit many parts of the world as we can. During our academic winter break from early December to early January, we've traveled to Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Costa Rica in the Americas, Thailand, Laos, Northern Vietnam, and India in Asia, and Tanzania and Zanzibar in Africa, as well as going to Italy, France and Great Britain, over the years. All have been wonderful trips and we're grateful that we were able to take them. But one of the non-traveling pluses has been that we leave just as winter descends (not very heavily in our part of the world), return in early January, and by February and March have quite a few periodic mild days, which are really quite spring-like, and we're back...

An unusually warm sunny day and seedlings popping up (snow pea, spinach, lettuce, and mustard) have me thinking spring is just about here. I saw the first (native) spring wildflowers on Friday: a single trout lily, a small bloodroot flower (where hundreds will be later), and several Oconee Bells (a locally rare species that's a regional treasure). But late this afternoon, this lone camellia flower was blooming in view of the kitchen window. Only last weekend, these branches were bent down by the weight of the wet, heavy late window snow.

Just in an afternoon, we've gone from winter to practically spring. Certainly, the early March snow persists in shady patches, but it was in the mid-50's (°F) this afternoon, so it shouldn't last much longer. And the prediction is for temperatures in the mid-70's for Saturday and Sunday. It's hard to know what plants will make of this. It will depend on their genetic heritage, for sure, whether sudden (exceptional) warmth will encourage bud expansion or not. Most of our native plants are still dormant, an adaptive strategy that's probably serving them well in a changeable climate.

It was a perfect late winter day here, temperatures in the upper 60's (°F), sunny and warm. It felt more like spring. The winter honeysuckle was covered in honey bees foraging for nectar. After a weekend away largely spent on indoor house activities (yuck), it was nice to return home and spend an hour or so turning over the remaining beds, sowing a first series of snap peas (Sugar Sprint) and garden peas (Wando and Maestro), a round of arugula, and a flat of mixed lettuce, to go in the cold frame when the weather turns cold again. I replanted some favas (broad beans), too, mainly as an experiment, since I think there may not be time for a crop to mature before it gets too hot. My fall planting of favas had a few blackened survivors still with healthy-looking roots, but it was really way too cold this winter for most normally winter hardy greens. Even collards show signs of frost damage. This week looks like it will be mild; I'm going to continue to put in onion sets and so...