If January was unseasonably warm, February came in and reminded the PNW that sometimes winter does come. We went from days in the 50’s and balmy nights, that were leading to this in the greenhouse (and to Daffodils opening in January!) –
To warnings of snow storms coming. But the past decade the snow storms have petered out or just been icy cold.
The first wave was OK, and everyone was fine. After all, it wasn’t that bad. This is normal, that if it does snow, it melts quickly and little falls. Especially as low as we sit to sea level (and the open water). The boys were excited to finally use the sled that has now moved twice with us!
However I did cover everything in the greenhouse with frost fabric.
Which it turned out, was a good choice.
And the snow came. And stayed. And more came.
The little feral domestic black rabbit was down to eating blackberry leaves at one point. I took pity on it and fed it some old apples I had found. Between it and the deer, the apples were gone overnight.
But the sunsets and sunrises were amazing between the snow storms.
Then finally, after many days, it stopped and started to warm up a bit. We still have snow on the edge of the woods, where the sun doesn’t hit.
Once it was mostly gone we got into the woods, and started removing issue trees, a number of alders that were already dead or dying (this massive beast core was riddled by termites).
Then the other projects that had waited called to be done.
The dwarf Tom Thumb peas started coming up, tucked into the greenhouse. A side project I love doing is to plant in ground, and then in the greenhouse, and see which does faster – and by how much faster.
Slowly the herb seeds have come up. The front row is Marshmallow.
A big project was the berry garden/orchard that is now done.
There was a public seed swap on the south end of the island that was a lot of fun to go to, and I met more local folk. Some seeds I took from the farm.
I might have brought home some as well….
I donated a gift box to the raffle because everyone needs love for the hands!
I almost hauled off the big pots, that I had built a quick container garden in last Spring, right after we moved in. But then I thought about it. It was great for the kids. They loved being able to run out and pick carrots and peas. I added a 6th container, and got them all filled up, and planted cold weather crops for salads.
We got another large project done, the laying of the first sileage tarp on the lowest field.
It is 100 feet long by 40 feet wide. Once we get the large pile of trees and branches chipped in the foreground we will lay out the second tarp.
Next month we will roll it back, flame weed, then till the land, and most likely cover it again to smother weeds.
Pepper helping me plant pea seeds and getting trellis in position. The garlic is coming up nicely.
But yeah, March is here. Time to get to work. Daylight Savings Time is nearly here!
~Sarah