Back to the cold

We spent a week in Florida (again) this past week.  It was unseasonably cool according to the desk clerk, but we weren't complaining. 60's beat our weather by a long shot this past week.  I was just checking the stats while we were gone to see what kind of snow fall we experienced during our absence.  There is still lots of it on the ground even though very little fell in our absence.  Last year  people were mowing the grass as we rolled into town.

Last year's unseasonably warm spring has made us feel somehow entitled to more of it this year.  We paid for the early spring last year with a "seasonable frost" that took out the early buds on the apple trees.  This cost us any abundance of apples for cider and other products that come from the excess crop not sold for straight fresh eating.  I had a good crop of most everything since I was able to irrigate what the drought deprived us of naturally.  Most of this was due to an early start of things in the ground.

I look out on my beds today with large, gentle flakes landing on mostly snow-covered, frozen ground of my raised beds.  I don't think the onions will be getting in this week like I hoped.  I will have to get very creative with my pea planting if they will be seeing soil on Good Friday.  Of this, I am not optimistic.  The only seeding I will be accomplishing this week will be under artificial light.  I want to get the baby cabbages started for early set.  There is lettuce to get set as seedlings before hitting the beds.  Even the south side of the house has some amount of snow cover.  It might be a good time to construct some cold frames with my double walled Lexan and warm the soil up with some solar heating.

I will think on this as I sip the last of the margaritas by the space heater and come up with "Plan B".