In like a lion.
Spring is definitely in the air … the 40mph air! The wind has been absolutely howling the past two days. I really don’t mind the wind, although the geese seem to be a it annoyed with it. What I find extraordinary is the little amount of precipitation we’ve had throughout the winter and I’m hoping it doesn’t continue into the spring as well.
Our farm is in it’s own little miroclimate. Those of you that garden, and many of you that don’t, are aware that the U.S. is broken up into planting zones. Each zone has it’s own climate and set of factors that are taken into account when planning what to plant, when, and where. Zones 9 and 10 are more tropical climates that can sustain many different types of vegetation that can’t be grown in the much colder northern zones of 1 and 2. Generally, Missouri is considered zone 5. However, if you look at the zone maps you’ll see a tiny little pocket that’s considered zone 6. Our farm is smack dab in the middle of it. That’s usually a pretty good thing for us. We can plant some things a bit earlier than the rest of the state and grow them later in the season. But, so far it seems our little microclimate has been working against us. All to the north of us and down to the south of us they have seen good amounts of precipitation. But every time there is snow or rain forecasted for the KC Metro area we get nothing. We’ve had only two measurable snow falls all winter and what we did get didn’t amount to much. We’ve had one little smattering of rain. I’m really hoping some things change a little bit or our microclimate will be in a micro drought!
On the plus side, all the seedlings that we started several weeks ago are going strong. Many of the tomato varieties have been thinned down to the strongest plants and, lo and behold, the eggplant seedlings are doing well (keep your fingers crossed). Next week we’ll start planting the early crops directly into the newly prepared soil. These will include kale, several varieties of swiss chard, many types of lettuce, spinach, peas, beans, green onions, leeks and more.
If the old saying holds true and March goes out like a lamb, our crops will be off to a great start!