To The Surbiton Manor Born

  We are right on the cusp of spring. The grass has turned markedly greener. The trees are budding out. But we are dealing with a 7 (high wind) on the Beaufort scale this afternoon, and the sky is grey. So I did some work inside. Six of the best Wisconsin tomatoes seeded 3/14 outgrew their pots. I potted them up. Yesterday I dropped row covers over some of the beds and planted beets, arugula, and carrots.  There are points where it just doesn't seem possible that these tiny seeds will come to anything. Such is the feeling this afternoon. For the record, splitting wood for the fireplace has, at the end of April, become more a chore than a joy. Tomorrow, we are supposed to get to near 80 with humidity. And we are also supposed to get violent storms. We will have to see how the seeds under the row covers hold up. It will be an interesting test to see whether the row cover is permeable (as I hope it is) to rain as well as light.

  Now we are getting somewhere! Cold frame activated. I don't know that it is making much of a difference yet. The soil and air temperatures were the same inside & outside, but it was cloudy today when I took the measurements, and I only put it up yesterday, so you can't expect the soil temperature to change much yet. I'm going to try to speed the zucchini along after I let it sit for a week with a black contractor bag at the bottom and covered. This after tonight, when I will uncover it to receive the 1.5" of rain we are supposed to get. Weirdly - this bed is producing garlic. I planted garlic in it two years ago, and behold, even after a season & having a bag of raised bed soil & compost piled into it, bam, garlic coming up. I planted snow peas in the bed with the new trellis. Next weekend we will do more cold weather crops. While I try to like it, I'm really not a fan of the spring. Here it is, 4/20, and it is still cold enough outside to warrant a f...

As T.S. Elliot famously said, "April is the cruelest month., breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain." Again, "sort of spring." We've had a few warm days, but most still begin with starting the fireplace. There's a routine now. Wake. Drink coffee. Come downstairs and shovel out most of the ashes from the fireplace. Start a fresh fire from the remaining coals. Start the process of watering the plants in the greenhouse while the fire takes. Fire up the old Oral B...and go on with the day. Friday of last week, we cooked ourselves. When it is in the '50's, it's a little too warm for a fire, but a little too cold not to have something warming the house a bit. It was great that the house was 78 degrees upstairs, but not so great when we tried to get to sleep. There is a certain desperation to the garden this year. Last year, we were content to grow some "halo" crops and sort of back...