Spring Snow

I was up and about at 6:30 this morning to check the greenhouse. Discovered that the timer on the circulation fan had stalled at some point, so that the fan was on in the middle of the night rather than in the heat of the day. Corrected that. Outside, the temperature felt about 30.

Soil and air temperature in the greenhouse in the mid 50's. Lettuce is growing well. Plenty to cut for dinner tonight.

The tomatoes are not looking exactly lush, they are putting on some new growth, but not bright glowing green. There appears to be a bit of chlorosis. I note that the water walls keep the soil moister than is the case in the rest of the greenhouse. I wonder if the roots are a bit waterlogged. I am going to cut back on the watering a bit.

The spinach is not growing the way I would like. It's growing long and spindly and not putting on a lot of leaves, and some of the plants are bolting. I'm thinking of hacking it back. These are nursery starts, var. "vancouver". Not sure I will do those again. Note for next year to start "bloomsdale" myself.

Carrots are still no-shows at this point. There are about 5 plants, but it looks like I need to replant.

I ran the lawnmower yesterday and picked up about 20 bushels (catcher holds 2bu) of dead leaves, old thatch and other debris. I dumped out the kitchen scraps and covered them with the lawn debris. Took me about 35 minutes to do the back part of the lawn. Would have done the front too, but dinner was ready and I need to move the trampoline and get the kid's toys out of the way first. I planned to do that this morning, but around 7:00 it started snowing hard.

It's actually snowing very hard. Not much wind, but BIG flakes and already about half an inch accumulated as of 8:00. Gray, cold, snowy day.

Inside, seedlings are doing well. I have 3 varieties of peppers and 5 of tomatoes growing well. I also have herbs going. Mint, Oregano, Marjoram, Savory, Coriander. I planted rosemary as well, but it's not coming up.

I worked in the garage most of the day yesterday, and planned to work in the garden most of today. Guess I should have done it the other way. Looks like it will snow all day.

I'm finishing up a seed starting bench to hold the grow lights today. It will support a bank of 6 flourescent tubes in three fixtures over a 2x4 area. This is a large enough space to hold 4 flats. I will be able to independently adjust the height of the lights so that I can start a couple of seed flats and also grow a box of lettuce or some tomatoes.

Not much else to report today. Time to go do something.