Happy First Day of Spring to all in the Northern Hemisphere! I’m seeing lots of life emerging from the ground here. I’ve been scattering seeds in some of my plots the last few days. Mainly radish, lettuce and some brassicas. Today I’ll be starting seeds in trays with some friends.
Wishing you all a good growing/harvesting season, wherever you are!
I picked up my pack of Sunviva seeds from the post office today.
I am going through my photos from last year and dreaming about the change of seasons. It is still winter here with many feet of snow still covering the ground but we are getting close enough to our last frost date that I may sow some seeds indoors today.
Happy Spring Equinox!
I’m preparing to plant my first chestnut tree seeds that have been cold stratifying. Also need to “pot-up” my tomato, pepper, and flower seedlings that have been under the grow lights in the basement the list few weeks.
Wishing all you NHers a great growing season. Autumn equinox here of course so I’ll be planting garlic in the next week or so.
Doing more sealing of my greenhouse. The wind never stops here, so if I don’t want the heat to blow away it will have to be tight as I can get it.
I’m torn – wanting to do a happy rain dance for the week of cold rain and snow we’re getting. But also disconcerted because it’s not ‘right’. We’re normally hot dry and windy from here until July/August – our last many springs are each colder and wetter than the previous one. However, in honor of spring coming eventually, I got out my seeds and will be starting solanaceae seeds in a few weeks. I had a little seed buying problem over the winter 
, excited about letting a bunch of crossing happen this year.
@Randy_Simmons I didn’t know about Sunviva tomatoes. Thank you for mentioning them.
@Lora Beautiful photo! We don’t have as much snow on the ground as you but did get a quick and furious snow shower this afternoon. Winter is not ready to give up yet.
@Mcantrell Welcome to the group! Have you grown trees from seed before? Looking forward to hearing about your chestnut trees and other projects.
@RayS How was your growing season? What have you been harvesting?
@xxxxx Are those woodchips in your Nov photo? What will you plant there?
@Lauren Good luck with the sealing project.
@HAnderson I get that the weather pattern doesn’t seem ‘right’, but could you turn it to your advantage? Does the colder, wetter weather each spring allow you to have a longer season for growing cool-weather crops?
I was never successful with cool weather crops because I would sow too late in the spring, and then suddenly it would be summer, and everything would bolt. Now, I put seeds out in the fall or let things go to seed and scatter. When the time is right, which can be pretty early, the seeds germinate and start growing. If it gets cold again, the plants seem to wait and then start up again when the temperature is favorable. It works out much better for me to let the seeds work out their own schedule.
On a whim, I took some warm-weather transplants that had gotten too large for my desk outside today! (Things I had enough of to try a risky experiment with.) I put them in the ground, deep mulched them in autumn leaves, and put a clear tupperware over the top of each one with a rock on top (so it wouldn’t blow off in the wind), in order to protect them from frost. I don’t know if they’ll survive or not, but it will be neat if they do!
I used to keep large sections of chain link to hold down the leaves and keep them from blowing away.
@DebbieA This is my first year doing any significant volume. I’m hoping to develop my techniques for trees, shrubs, and other native plants and possibly start a business. At very least, i am working on a permaculture layout for my farm to feed ourselves, our livestock, and wildlife.
I “celebrated” the first day of spring by staring wistfully out my windows at 30" of snow. 
It was above freezing in my high tunnel yesterday so I took all the straw mulch off of my beds in there to start letting the ground defrost! Pretty exciting! I’ll be planting Chinese cabbage in there to harvest before I put in my heat loving crops like tomatoes and squash. Just need to wait one more month!
It is New Moon now, so I do not sow anything until tomorrow. I have used this time to prepare a new batch of seed sowing mix and cleaned up grow bags that I use on my terrace. I have been sorting and packing seeds collected in 2022. I was taking care of seedlings that already grow inside and hardening outside fava beans - the very first seedlings that will go to the garden, possibly on Thursday.
@DebbieA Yes, there are definitely benefits to the cooler, wetter spring – the precipitation alone is great. Since we get only about 8-10"/yr on average (sometimes way less), I’m never unhappy when there’s moisture! We’ll still get temp swings (we had both 60’s and low teens the week before last), so not sure if it’ll help cool weather crops – other than I haven’t had to irrigate at all. I’m starting to wonder if I’ll have some stored moisture in the soil for the early summer.
I like sowing in the fall too. Also, I’ve had luck with kale overwintering despite our dips into the negatives. I cut it off at the soil surface in the fall and give it the same poultry litter/leaf/mulch cover for winter, and it recently started leafing out again (it’s uncovered). I suspect the mix of the manure and mulch is sort of ‘composting’ and helping to keep things warmer than it would otherwise.
I went poking around to see what perennials were coming up - and found the tips of rhubarb showing, in spite of its having apparently died back in last summer’s drought.
Last week, someone asked me how I was doing, and I happily said, “My radishes are sprouting!”
She looked shocked and said, “You planted your garden?!”
“Yep!”
“Don’t you have snow?”
“Nope, it all melted last week.”
“We still have four feet of snow where I live.”
“Four FEET?! Not four inches – four FEET?!”
“Yeah.”
Wow. And she lives only a half hour drive away from me. Much higher elevation, though. Makes me glad again about where I live, in a valley. 
Three weeks ago, my answer was a little bit maudlin. Today I can report that we’re having signs of spring. We’ve now had two night where it didn’t dip below freezing temperatures and the melt is truly underway. There’s still six feet of snow and ice piled up along the roadside, but in a few patches, I can see the ground!
Our first and last day of spring was on Saturday. It was a very nice day! 
