Monday, April 23, 2007

Wise Oak

Our Red oak seems to have been the smartest plant on our property, waiting until just about now to start to leaf out; it avoided the hard, hard frosts of a week or so ago. Okay, the persimmon tree did, too. But the rest of them were taken in by the three weeks of 70 and 80 degree days that were the end of March and first week of April. The maple trees, the hydrangeas, the fig, the pawpaws and my peas. The peas! There's a disappointment, I thought they were frost tolerant but I shoulda covered 'em up. They do seem to be slowly recovering but I planted some more, filling in where whole plants withered, this weekend. I also put in several tomato plants: Grape, Roma, Big Beef, Sweet 100, Early Girl and Better Boy. I also left a couple that sprouted on their own from last years seeds that had dropped to the soil. It'll be a surprise what grows on those plants -- these self-seeded tomato plants were a bit frost damaged, too, but they look like they'll make it..
And I started some radishes and bibb lettuce. The radishes because they're the quickest thing to get to harvest and the bibb because they didn't have "black seeded simpson", my usual lettuce although it doesn't seem to like growing in Alabama much -- too hot too early I assume.

Thursday, April 19, 2007