I won't claim that this post has any kind of political significance, or that it's important to anyone but me and perhaps those who live in Oklahoma, but...
It's Raining!
Some places have gotten almost an inch of rain.
Granted it's been our first Tornado Watch of the season, but it's raining. Some places have received small hail as well.
We are about a foot behind our annual rainfall totals due to the drought. So this is a much needed and desired weather pattern.
FYI--the weather is setting up to look pretty bad for Arkansas. and other Southern States, so heads up! You might want to make sure and pay close attention to the weather in those places. If you want to know what's what, go to the National Weather Service and click on their interactive map.
It's been very warm this week and we will get cooler and then warm back up again. The trees are already showing their buds, which is quite early. They are not blooming yet though, which is good because we could still get some hard freezes this early in the year.
I just put my carrots and onions into the ground, and have almost finished preparing the bed for the potatoes. Last year we harvested our potatoes a month early, because it warmed up so quickly and did not freeze.
We are planting Red Pontiacs, Idaho Golds, All Purple, Rose Finns, and other Fingerlings. I even accidentally dug up one of my Horse radish roots while weeding and replanted it.
Sadly, because it's been so warm, the bees have been very active, so I have been feeding mine throughout the winter with a five gallon feeder. I just refilled that today. I had hoped to get into the boxes yesterday but it was too windy and overcast, the bees are grumpy on days like that, so I will wait. When it's warm the bees will patrol an area looking for flowers, even if there are none. And so they eat up all their food stores. This is yet one more reason why wacky seasons really mess up the critters. Normally in areas that are cold, there are no flowers and it's so cold the bees are clustering in the hive around the queen. In areas that are supposed to be warm, there is some kind of forage available.
But in areas like this, that are supposed to be cold but are warm instead, there are no flowers but the bees don't know that and fly around using up all their energy looking for food that isn't there.
Back to the Carrots. I haven't had much luck with Carrots at all. I added some compost to the beds, and planted some rainbow varieties which include orange, white, yellow and purple carrots. I have kept the ground evenly moist and placed a row cover over the bed to keep it warmer at night and to keep moisture in and birdies out. The chickens and other birds were eyeballing my seeds as I planted earlier this week.
I have lovely, loose, soil in raised beds, so the roots have room to form correctly. I think that last year I planted them too late and it got hot and then the gophers came and ate the tiny carrots that did grow. Or something did.
My indoor Tomato starts are already quite big. Some are going to be transplanted into four inch pots today or tomorrow. They are quite lovely. I have peppers and eggplants sprouting as well.
And I have more seeds for Comfrey coming in the mail. Yippee!
Next goal: Apricot Trees. I love apricots. We had apricot trees when I was a child, and every summer was an apricot cobbler summer. And farmer's Market strawberries.
FYI when you put morning glories in the ground, squirrels will dig those up and eat them, along with sweet peas.