What is this season for?
Posted by: TammyMarch in southern New England can definitely be crazy in terms of weather. My homestead journal has had me planting sugar snap peas in warm soil to shoveling out piles of snow to find a place to put my stove so I can boil sap. We have a phrase, “March comes in like a lion, and goes out like lamb.” which refers to the wild weather swings we experience. Some of the heaviest snows can come in early but melt quickly and usually by the end of March we’re experiencing beautiful, warm weather (warm, by the way, means 50’s here). Then there is THIS year:
Here is my area around my vertical fences:
Yep, that’s still about three FEET of snow hanging around! Honestly, this year is messed up. The temps have just not been conducive to the maple syrup season. We JUST started getting daytime temps above freezing but at the same time, I have buds on the trees. Once you have buds on the trees, the sap starts to take on a less than good flavor. Given that the slog through three feet of snow would be extremely dangerous for my still healing foot and ankle and that the buds have come out, I’ve decided to scrap this year’s maple sugaring season. Yes, I’m sad about this. ‘Tis the season for maple sugaring! I know. My disappointment is compounded by the fact that last year’s season was a messed up and so short that I missed it. I’m grateful that three springs ago was a banner year for me and I still have a supply of maple syrup canned up.
So what is the season now? Generally I would say planting season but when you look at those pictures, it’s hard to picture planting anything besides your bum on a beach in a warm place with one of those fruity drinks with an umbrella! That said, my drive to get out and start planting is motiving me to try a bit homesteading engineering. I’ve been pondering on how I can create a sort of greenhouse in the space between my vertical fences (the bottom picture). Ben helped me shovel out the space yesterday and over the next few days we’re going to try to find some cedar poles the boys took down last year that are buried under the snow (dead standing cedar that had started to fall over after heavy rains and needed to be cut down). We’re going to lash them to the upright cedar poles and then lay thick clear plastic over the structure. We will have to shovel out a space on the other side of each fence to allow the plastic to drape down and over but I’m hoping by week’s end, we’ll be warm and cozy inside our new greenhouse!
I am going to experiment with how to plant inside the structure. I think that using straw bales to keep plants up, off the cold ground will be the best way to plant. I saw a great technique using bags of soil, cut open but NOT dumped to grow greens and other shallow-rooted plants when you have poor soil (or minimal growing areas). I’m thinking that placing the bags down on top of the bales would create great places for spring greens like spinach, lettuces and maybe even radishes! Yes, I’m getting desperate. My foot and ankle injury kept me out of my garden from mid-July onward. Combined with a horribly long winter and deep snow, I have such a yearning to smell warm soil and see green things growing that I’m ready to take my plans from paper to reality. I promise to keep you updated on the building process.
My only problem right now? Do you think they’ve replaced the winter supplies at the stores with potting soil yet?
