Thursday, January 28, 2010

My Fingers Are Getting Itchy!

The temps have been in the mid sixties the last few days. The sun has been shining and the skies are blue. A little promise that spring is on the way. This weather makes me want to dig in the garden.

I'm planning a bed for fingerling potatoes. This is to see if we can grow them here. I've seen several dishes prepared on cooking shows and they look so good. Now it's time to try my hand at growing my own potatoes and make those dishes. :)

We need to get out our pots and plant some cabbage seed so they will be ready to transplant by the end of February or the middle of March. I need to make a bed where I can plant greens. Fresh salad greens sound like a heaven send at this time.

We were watching a cooking show this afternoon where the woman was slicing cucumbers. I turned to William and said "Just think it won't be long before it's time to plant our cukes." Can't wait.

I think I am coming down with a huge case of spring fever. There's a cure so don't worry. The cure includes a tiller, rabbit/chicken/compost fertilzer, bunches of seeds and a couple of digging tools. LOL Add to this a bright sunny day and a couple of Naproxin Sodium (for old stiff achy joints) and I will be fine.

Now that I've worked myself into a frenzy wanting to get into the garden....I will tell you the weather forecast for this weekend starting on Friday (tomorrow). Ice and snow is possible along with freezing rain. Yep...that's a cure for spring fever too. Brings one back to reality pretty quickly.

But there's a promise that springs on it's way and I believe the promise. A couple of more months and spring will be here in it's bright, sunny green glory!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

It's Been A While

I didn't realize it has been such a long time since I posted on this blog. Nothing is going on in the garden now.

The kale is just sitting there shivering in the frost and the green onions have all bowed to the cold. The green tops of the onions look like mush from the cold temps we've had.

I live in East Central Mississippi approximately two hundred miles from the Gulf of Mexico. We usually have mild winters in our area. Most winters we see a few scattered days with temperatures that get into the twenties. Once in a blue moon we have temps in the teens. This winter has been an exception. We are working on two weeks of nighttime temps in the teens.

According to the weather forecasters this is the first time in thirty-one years that this area has seen this many days with temps as low as they've been the last couple of weeks. Now this is a good thing for "southern bugs". The bugs that we are plagued by all summer will be killed by the low temps. Ticks, chiggers (AKA redbugs) and mosquitoes can't survived cold temps for long periods of time. Two weeks of below freezing temps is a long period of time in my opinion. :)

January and February are the two months we begin to get our gardens ready to plant for early spring crops. Potatoes, English peas, cabbage, and other greens are usually put in the ground in January and February.

I don't think there's too much planting right now. The ground is frozen and it's too cold outside to work.

GOOD NEWS: We have come out of the drought we were in. We were over the normal amount of rainfall for the year of 2009. This is wonderful news as we have been in a drought situation for about three years. It's great for gardeners, it's great for pastures, ponds and the farms in Mississippi.

i've gotten a chuckle several times listening to the people complain. Last summer when we were getting NO rain a lot of people were praying and talking about how much we needed rain. Then last fall when we started getting rain the people were talking about how wet and muddy everything was and how they were so tired of rain. I just smiled to myself and thought about how a lot of them had prayed for it to rain then when God answered their prayers they complained about it.

I'm thankful for the rain. I hope it helps our garden do better this year than it has the last two years. No complaints on my part. I have it figured that God is in charge, that He made it all and He knows what's best for His creation.

The chickens are still laying. We're getting five or six eggs a day. This is great for wintertime. I really like my little Easter Eggers. They've earned a special place in my heart for being so productive even in the coldest temps.

That's about the jist of it all. Nothing major can be done right now so I'm waiting out this cold weather knowing spring is not fall ahead.

Thanks for dropping by. Come again any time. As spring comes closer and we get busy outside I will be posting more news from around Hunny Bunny Haven along with pictures of the goings on.