Heatherworld

I started getting manic about a week ago. It's January, I'm manic for gardening. The frosts have killed off all the weeds in "Heatherworld" (our name for my garden area). I went out there and started clearing. Hey, this isn't that bad. I got most of it finished in about 4 hours, and I had a lot of great, shredded dry stuff for soil amending, mulch, and/or compost. I should mention that I've always been an organic gardener. I don't see the point of putting chemicals on things you grow. If you want pesticide, fungicide, and synthetic fertilizer in your food, go to the grocery store. I try to grow things that work in my zone (allegedly it's zone 8 but it acts more like zone 9 every winter).

For instance, after April, you can forget the leaf lettuce. It's not happening. The high heat and humidity are going to make the plants miserable. Lettuce likes days like today, in the low 60's with a drizzle. I plant Romaine lettuce, specifically "Jericho" which was bred in the Middle East. You know it's used to some hot and miserable weather. Tomatoes do great from about March to late June, then again from August to frost date (generally sometime in mid-December). Peppers do great, but they won't fruit above 90 degrees. Don't hold it against them, you wouldn't want to work out there either. Just wait and you'll get your peppers when it gets a liiiitttle cooler.

I'm back. I've got dirt under my fingernails, garden plans in my head, a tomato in the windowsill (next to a desk lamp with compact flourescent bulb), and onions and collards (from what I've heard, Collards are the wonder green, they can take it from freezing all the way to high 90's and keep producing. I've got to try that!) out in Garden bed 4.

I still have about 70 more onion transplants to put to bed. They seem OK, though. In 2006, I planted onion transplants in April. They did pretty well considering, but I always wondered how big the onions would have gotten if I could have planted them in January (!!!). This year, I find out.

I find myself funny when I go out to work in the yard. If I have any kind of heavy digging planned, I always wear jeans, garden boots, t-shirt, and gloves. My clothing is immaculate and I've got on my heavy leather gloves. Fast forward an hour. I'm sweating, my coat's on the ground, my gloves are off somewhere near the coat, and I'm up to my wrists in the soil. I'm never happier.

My big question of the day. Do I want a Rhubarb?