Patience

It was a sorely needed stretch of dry weather this past week. Not the most beautiful dry weather, with maybe two or three days of sunshine spread out amidst the overcast days. It wasn’t even completely dry, with some drizzly rain falling occasionally, but nothing measurable. Still, we were so thankful to have it. Our soil made progress drying out, but it was not enough to get us into the ground. Our soil is a silty clay loam, which is good for holding nutrients, but not so good for draining winter rains. Farms with sandy loams or other well draining soils did get into the ground and started planting, but we continue to wait. It is hard to be patient with so little dry weather this spring, but we know it is best for our soil. If we tried to work our fields now, we would end up with hard lumps of compacted soil that nothing would want to grow in. We are practicing patience while the propagation hoop house fills up.

We did use the dry weather to get started on a long overdue project: a new hoop house. This week, we set our ground posts/foundation legs in concrete. Or, I should say, Steven set our ground posts. I helped a bit and his dad helped a bit. It was nice to be digging holes and pouring concrete in dry weather, rather than mud and rain. We figure we can work in the rain for the main construction and then hope for a dry, calm day to put on the plastic.

The Shiro plum and Flavor King pluot trees bloomed this week. It was still a little bit cool for pollinators to be out in force, but they have been out on the sunny afternoons. I am keeping my fingers crossed for plenty of pluots this summer!