Feb 2, 2012

Resolutions


February 1. Time to make those new year's resolutions. What? I'm a month late? Not so. I will admit that everything in my life has been late, the last couple of months, starting with winter.

Winter? What winter? has been the topic of conversation around town since hopes of an early ski season died a-borning, right after Thanksgiving. After a promising skiff of snow in mid-November, we had no precipitation of any kind until the last few days of December, when it ...... rained .03" on the 28th. Pitiful. At least it saved December 2011 from being the driest December on record.

In December 1976, the infamous 'drought year', there was no measurable precipitation at all. That was the year we hiked into Chambers Lakes (7000 feet elevation, in the saddle between the peaks of South Sister and Middle Sister in the central Cascades on my sweetheart's birthday, December 21. Bare ground at 7000 feet in midwinter is unheard of in this latitude. The ground wasn't even frozen. I dug a couple of tiny wild huckleberry bushes for my garden. Shhh, don't tell anyone.

Finally, two weeks ago, on January 16 -- we got a real winter snow dump. Good thing too, as I was getting tired of watering my garden -- dealing with frozen hoses only adds injury to insult (we can talk about the evil agenda of hoses another time). The storm seemed to have caught everyone unawares. Schools were closed. The college was closed. Even Mt. Bachelor, our local ski area, closed. 72" of snow in 72 hours was just too much for even their snow removal equipment.

The chickens, as usual were unimpressed. I thought their new play yard looked quite festive in the snow.

The new girls were suitably shocked.

but a few tasty treats soon lured them all out for breakfast al fresco.


Alas, the new solar panels are not really operational after snowfall.

Now here it is, Feb 1 and it still feels like early November. But for us gardeners, it's time for new year's resolutions. Personally, I don't much bother with the usual January 1 kind of resolutions. 'New Year's Day' is a fairly meaningless thing in the real (natural world). A change of one digit in the year but nothing tangible to hang one's hat on. No wonder most 'New Year's Resolutions' go flop within a week or two.

I prefer to hang my resolutions onto something more tangible, or at least visible in my garden. Feb 1 is very close to that magical day (Feb 4 this year) when we hit 10 hours of daylength -- the point halfway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, traditionally considered the first day of spring. This is the time when plants resume active growth. Hardy greens like kale, mache and claytonia, which can sit dormant all winter in sheltered places around the yard, or huddled up in the cold frame, begin first spring growth about now. Depending on weather and temperature, we can start eating the earliest greens from the cold frame sometime in late February, and few weeks later from the open garden.

Admittedly, this (non)winter has been weird even with plant growth. Some of my earliest shade-loving perennials -- pulmonaria and hardy ferns -- sprouted and began showing new leaves in late December. On Christmas Eve I threw some old kale seed into the cold frame, and within a couple of weeks that was sprouting too.



Who knows what 'spring' will bring. Last year we had cold, snowy, frosty weather until nearly the end of June. Tomato plants that went in in mid-month sat there shivering for weeks as the longest days of the year passed by. Then, suddenly, as if waking from a dream, the weather seemed to straighten up, shake its head, and stand up, casting off the cold like an old coat, and begin blasting out heat and intense midsummer sunlight on every bedraggled seedling in the yard. I had sunburn on my tomatoes -- a first for me.

But that's a worry for the future. For now, I will take a good look at last year's garden journal notes, draw up my first seed orders, and get started on those resolutions. For now?

* Keep better records
* Plant fewer tomatoes
* Figure out a better irrigation system
* Fertilize more
* Skip the sweet potatoes. Really.
* Learn to espalier
* Order seeds NOW



Hint: these are my standard resolutions for every year. Wish me luck.

Oh, and one more:

* Blog often

thanks for reading!













4 comments:

  1. I feel the same way about the new year. We generally have a Fat Tuesday bash then get on the straight and narrow the next morning. Just curious, do you have the same resolutions every year because you do follow through or because you don't?

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  2. Katie, some of both. I always aim to keep better records because no matter how many notes I take, I always wish I had written more, when I go back later and reread them. And the last few years I have been pretty slack, probably because despite my good intentions, after 40+ years of gardening I just can't always get excited about noticing every detail and tend to think 'maybe later' instead of whipping out notepad and pen on a hot August day.

    "Plant fewer tomatoes" hasn't really worked out. I remove a few from my list each year, but then can't resist adding a few new ones. It's cheap fun.

    "Figure out a better irrigation system" is an ongoing quest for desert climate gardeners. I haven't found the perfect solution yet. So each year I try something new. Maybe in 2012 ........ Same with fertilizing. For years (decades) I mostly used homemade compost, which improved soil tilth amazingly, but since I started doing a bit more, results have surprised me, so I'm experimenting with a few new organic things each year.

    "Skip the sweet potatoes. Really" Honestly, does this LOOK like Georgia? But seed catalogs promise 'produces well in short season climates' and I haven't been able to resist trying just a few. But this year, I will. Promise.

    "Learn to espalier" still only a dream. Maybe this year?

    "Blog more often" I'm on it.

    What about you? I'm going to go look what Sunset Zone you are in ....... Ooooooh! Zone 7!!!!!! Lucky!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yep, the banana belt of the Sierra. Here's a few resolutions I'll try to keep:
    *plant way less squash
    *try growing new vegetables
    *don't plant all the seeds at once
    *keep turning the compost
    *keep after the suckers on the fruit trees
    Good luck with your list! Especially the espalier.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I tend to have the same gardening resolutions each year also... I definitely want to add some rain barrels and make a DIY tumbling composter.--Hopefully I can get it done :) I never seem to have planted enough tomatoes!

    ReplyDelete