Late winter snow

Many aspects of gardening involve adjusting for the unplanned and unexpected. Weather, of course, is a primary element to which gardeners have to adjust and readjust expectations and plans. Earlier in the week, I planned on using this weekend to start a garden clean up and pruning project. We awoke on Saturday, however, to snow. Not a lot of snow, but enough to make it too cold for me to want to go outside.

The snow didn’t matter, though, because I couldn’t have worked in the garden this weekend anyway. Earlier in the week, I injured my leg and am now on crutches.  The ER doctor told me it could take 2 – 3 months to recover. This, of course, had me thinking about how I’d still be able to get the garden started in time for the primary growing season. Luckily, I think the doctor’s prognosis was worse than reality. I’m already down to using just one crutch. Hopefully, I’ll be fully mended in a few weeks. In the interim, I’ll have to ask Derek to help out with the garden a bit more than usual.

Fresh eggs

While I hobble on my crutch, the garden goes on. The hens are waking up to the impending spring and their egg production has increased significantly  in the last month. We are now getting about six eggs daily, which is pretty good for nine hens, especially since a few of the hens are now getting long in the beak.

Inside, my tomato seedlings have sprung forth from the potting soil. The peppers should catch up soon. They always seem to take a few days longer than the tomatoes.

Oh, I also found out about a new program this week. We’ve been members of the Puget Sound Energy Green Power Program for some time. In addition to using electricity, we also use natural gas for heat and cooking. While natural gas is better than electricity, it does produce carbon. PSE now also has a Carbon Balance Program, which allows customers to buy carbon offsets to balance out natural gas usage. For a typical household, the offsets cost about $8/month. We’re now all signed up.

That’s it for now. I’ll taking it easy for the next week, hoping for the leg to perk up. By next week, though, I’m going to head into the garden, even if it is just to supervise as I ask others to help out.

Sandy