Growing with the Flow!
Manual water valves that we replaced
May the water flow:
As I said last month, we are upgrading our irrigation this spring. We automated 20 zones. This automation is going to save water and time. The plants they will get less water than before, but more often. We will be getting water where it is needed when it is needed and not over-watering. I admit, I was worried that we would not get it finished before we needed to start irrigating. Christie and I finished installing the water lines, automated valves and control boxes, all we have left is back filling around the valve boxes and a little bit of trench for pipe. We tested it out and fixed a couple of leaks. We discovered that we have a few spots where we need to fix the emitter lines to the plants. It’s always something.
I have been worried about the early warm weather. It appears that we may have made it through that abnormally warm weather, relatively unscathed. The plants that have been blooming early seem ok. These cold nights, below 32 degrees have been hard on the asparagus. Back on the 15th we picked over 10 pounds. We have not picked any since then, every time it is getting close to picking it freezes again. Even though asparagus is an early spring plant the spears are very tender which is the reason we like them so much but the cold nights freeze them. That first taste of homegrown asparagus last week just made us want even more.
On to those pesky grapes that I complain about dying to the ground every year. They are proving me wrong this year. Last week while we were out walking the place, we noticed that the buds are swelling up and preparing for bud break.
The ordered plants started arriving at the beginning of the month. This is a month earlier than when they normally start arriving. I was a bit concerned with the timing when we placed the orders, but we were planning to offer most of the plants for sale. In that vein, we ordered 175 pounds of seed potatoes, not ones you normally find at the store. We had fingerlings, some with purple flesh and some with pink flesh and several others. We have just about sold out; we are quite happy. We were worried that no one want them.
We also received onion plants and strawberry plants. We will have strawberry plants for sale until late spring or they sell out. The onion plants are a different story we will only be offering these for the next week or so, then we will plant out whatever is left. We are still waiting for a couple of orders, mostly haskaps (honey berries), elderberry and some more strawberries. As soon as they arrive, they will be available for purchase.
We are glad that spring is here for real and are ready for summer after our warm winter and spring. Once summer gets going, we will be ready for fall and shorter days, but not for winter.