Points In Between

Every May has a cooler period of weather after some warmer weather has allowed us to make certain progress on the farm.  As a result, we often have to take additional steps to protect more sensitive plants for future success.  It's just part of the game we play with Mother Nature.

Some critters don't play games, they just nap when it is cooler.

While we would love to also nap, we can't do that until we protect some of the plants that went outside to get hardened off for planting in the fields.  Our garage often becomes one of those places.  It's got a little bit of insulation and we do have a grow area with some heat mats in that building as well.

melons and cukes are started!

 Into the building go the houseplants we have already taken outside for the Summer.  Into the building go the trays of melons, squash and flowers we have gotten to germinate (we call it getting them to 'pop') in trays.  If we have to, we can start up some space heater(s) and keep the building just a bit warmer.  It does have the issue that it is not very bright in that building, so there are some issues if plants have to be sheltered for too long.

Time to top-dress these flowers, I think!

We have considered other solutions for this problem, but most of them include the construction of a lean-to or other building project.  Sadly, we only have so many resources in time, money and energy to spend each season and this project always seems to fall off the list.  Besides, this isn't usually a horrible thing, though it does get annoying during Springs that can't make up their minds.

Thinking about it - that would be most Springs.  Hmmmm.

Parsley needs some fertilizer too!  Better fix that!

The hardest part about the cooler days like this is that the humans themselves have a harder time wanting to do the work they KNOW they need to do.  They'd both rather sit in a chair with a cat in their lap while they (the humans, not the cats) read a book.  We have determined that Farmer Rob appears to be solar powered and too many days of clouds means he runs a bit slower than he should.  But, we get through it all eventually.

Lettuce and onions nearing transplant in the ground

Probably the most difficult thing about this Spring has been how slow some things have been to get going.  Normally, we would have started the Whole Enchilada and Alternating Delivery shares in the first week of May.  This year, it has waited until mid-May.  When things don't grow, you don't harvest.  When you don't harvest, you don't deliver.  Such is the life of a veggie farmer.

On the other hand, we are confident it will all balance out this year.  A slow start is fine because the setbacks have not been devastating ones.  Instead, they are small inconveniences that simply require some adjustment on our part.  We can handle that.

We're looking forward to the day when these melons bear fruit, the onions bulb out and ask us to harvest them and the lettuce have big beautiful (and tasty) leaves.