On Tuesday morning it was cold when I got up around 6AM so I got the stoves going and my post up. When I pulled up the shades at 7AM it was snowing and soon everything was white. Then it stopped and started to melt.
I had to go outside at 9AM and it was sleeting, little round balls.
East Shed garden – chiondoxa forbesii in the sleet
It stopped after a while and when my brother came down at 10AM it had mostly melted, except under trees. There was enough white to make him wonder what I had spread under the trees…
I got the laundry started after being inspected. I managed to get it washed and dried over the course of the day but not folded.
My helper friend arrived at 10:30AM and we went right out and cleaned out the garden shed so we could get the cold frame covers out of the back of it. We got everything back in and were just carrying the covers down when the lawnmower guy arrived to pick up my 2 mowers for “winterization”. We’d intended to do it in November but the cold and snow came too fast.
I called him in March when we could get to the barn again, but his son died the weekend before St Patrick’s day, so he’s finally getting back to his job.
My helper friend was cleaning out the leaves in the cold frames while I was dealing with the lawnmower guy. I came back and went through the 8 trays that had been left out all winter. I found half a tray of alive plants. I’d intended to plant them but while it wasn’t raining, snowing, or sleeting, the wind had come up and I was getting pretty cold. So I put them on the walkway where it will annoy me, so I will plant them when I can.
The wood guys had arrived just as we were finishing the cold frames. They’d had a morning of it too. First the latch holding the doors shut on the trailer broke. Then when they were on the highway, the ball snapped off while pulling the trailer. So they were down one trailer. Then one of the guys hurt his hand. They weren’t having a good day.
I had gone inside and later when I looked out, it was raining on them. And later still it turned to pea sized hail. They REALLY weren’t having a good day! They got the right side shed half full.
My helper friend made me an onion, broccoli, and mushroom quiche and I had that for lunch and supper.
I noticed they had 3 posts left in the shed and only five 3” x 5” poles to lay down. So when my helper friend got back from errands he went up to the barn with me to get 1 more pole. We got lucky and found 2 pieces that would work and hopefully were the right size without having to take the pile apart.
I was pretty cold by the time we got back with the pole pieces but I got shots of the daffodils. It’s odd that only ½ of the New South garden daffs have opened. My helper friend speculated that the 3’ deep plowed pile that had been in front of the open ones had something to do with it.
I had kept the fires going all day as the sun came and went with all the various weather we got. Once everyone was gone, I lay on the couch watching David Attenborough’s ‘Life of Mammals’ until it was time to tend the stoves and pull shades at 7PM. It was to drop into the mid 20’sF during the night.
On Wednesday I hope to get out and start the West Herb/West gardens as it’s to be sunny. That’s all I have planned.
