Tag Archives: spring freeze

Peregrine Farm News Vol. 16 #6, 3/6/19

What’s been going on! 

The usual spring dance- cold, warm, cover, uncover, one-two-three, one-two-three.  The first of two cold nights in a row past us and everything looks good, only 26 degrees even though they had forecast for colder.  We will see how it goes tonight, we always believe that the second night is the coldest no matter what they originally forecast.  They are calling for 24 tonight.

The other farmer dance step at this time of year is more free form because it varies in timing and intensity, more like improv- wet, dry, till, plant, wet and we are rocking that step this week too.  As soon as it warms up tomorrow we will till a few more beds that are finally dry enough and plant another round of lettuce, radishes, turnips and kale just before it rains again on Friday.

The thing that we are learning about the new compact Peregrine Farm is that none of these dances last very long.  There is just not that much stuff in the ground and we are slowly getting adjusted to that.  Not complaining mind you, just pleasantly surprised when a certain task is suddenly done because there are no longer acres of crops to take care of.  Maybe we will even have time for dance lessons.

Pictures of the Week

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 All of the crops are under their blankets

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 If you were an Anemone, this would be your world view

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 14 #4, 3/3/17

What’s been going on!

Well our gut instincts were correct, be wary of a warm spell in early spring!  The forecast for tonight is 23 degrees here at the farm, followed by 26 Saturday night.  Colder than we really want to see but most things should be fine especially with some floating row covers.  Betsy is a bit concerned about the amazing tunnel full of Ranunculus that are just now sending up thousands of stems.

A fairly normal late winter week with both indoor and outdoor work.  My annual visit with the accountant, so they can do the end of year taxes, is always a bit like going to the psychologist.  I leave feeling like I have done a thorough job in record keeping but unsure how it will all end up.  I know we are an anomaly to him but he is fascinated by our small business and how it all goes together, especially now with the Jennies transition and its effect on the business.

Planting goes on, as well as cultivation.  The big project right now is to finish up the removal of two huge trees we had to take down.  We had both a big hickory die and a monster red oak starting to die that we needed to drop before they did damage dropping limbs.  The oak is the biggest tree we have ever had to deal with, 36” at chest height.  We have taken care of all the brush and I am just about done cutting up the rest into firewood.  Hey at least we have enough firewood for two winters now!

Picture of the Week

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Beautiful tunnel of ranunculus just hitting stride

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Peregrine Farm News Vol. 13 #9, 4/13/16

What’s been going on!

Well we slipped the bullet on the big freeze but we sure were worried that it could have been worse.  Only 27 degrees on Sunday morning and the wind died enough that all the row covers stayed perfectly in place.  The wind was so strong all day we waited until just before dark to pull the covers over about three quarters of an acre, in textbook fashion the wind slowed as the sun went down and the next morning the covers looked like we had just put them out.

Cold shots are just the normal kind of hassle we can have in the spring but an unusual problem has been bedeviling us this last month.  Every once in a while a mouse decides that the greenhouse is a nice warm place to live when it is cold outside and what would a mouse eat?  Seeds and seedlings of course!

Their first choice is nice fat sunflower seeds that we have conveniently placed in fluffy soil on warm heat mats.  Then some of the tomato seedlings began disappearing so we reseeded those.  Finally we filled the germination box up with all kinds of scrumptious pepper seeds that they enjoyed with salads of cilantro and parsley seedlings.  Fortunately they don’t eat everything, just graze around but we have had to reseed a number of things.  Unfortunately for them we have dispensed with two of the little blighters and think we have stemmed the invasion for this spring.

Picture of the Week

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Early Sunday morning, lots of happy plants under cover

What’s going to be at the market? Continue reading →