Frost in May?
No, this is not the novel by Antonia White (which I highly recommmend). Just an unexpected blast of cold air in Western MA this weekend, including snow flurries this morning and last night with a little touch of freezing rain.
In spite of that the garden progresses--we did put a blanket over the one zucchini plant last night but the kale (yes, I know) and chard were just fine and the other stuff has yet to go in. We're using a little teeny portable greenhouse and it's done a brilliant job with the seedlings. For the first time, because of Covid-19, we are still spending much more time out in Shelburne than before and at last we are able to start our own annuals from seed. Before, we either left them to fend for themselves in Cambridge or in Shelburne, and they dried up or damped off before we could get to them. Right now we have Honesty (lunaria), Zinnias (mixed although I would rather have had single colors), Cosmos, and Tithonia, the brilliant orange "Mexican Sunflower" which I hope will make a splendid duet with aconites later this summer. Sweet peas and snowpeas have just broken ground in the vegetable beds. And thanks to Margaret Roach of the NYT I can now identify a weed that I yank up every summer--CLEARWEED, a horrible little thing that spreads even faster than Covid-19. Fortunately easy to pull up.
My next project is to Teach Myself To Draw. I think that my first portrait will be of an onion, since it stands still and won't become self conscious from being stared at.
In spite of that the garden progresses--we did put a blanket over the one zucchini plant last night but the kale (yes, I know) and chard were just fine and the other stuff has yet to go in. We're using a little teeny portable greenhouse and it's done a brilliant job with the seedlings. For the first time, because of Covid-19, we are still spending much more time out in Shelburne than before and at last we are able to start our own annuals from seed. Before, we either left them to fend for themselves in Cambridge or in Shelburne, and they dried up or damped off before we could get to them. Right now we have Honesty (lunaria), Zinnias (mixed although I would rather have had single colors), Cosmos, and Tithonia, the brilliant orange "Mexican Sunflower" which I hope will make a splendid duet with aconites later this summer. Sweet peas and snowpeas have just broken ground in the vegetable beds. And thanks to Margaret Roach of the NYT I can now identify a weed that I yank up every summer--CLEARWEED, a horrible little thing that spreads even faster than Covid-19. Fortunately easy to pull up.
My next project is to Teach Myself To Draw. I think that my first portrait will be of an onion, since it stands still and won't become self conscious from being stared at.