When I stepped outside Tuesday morning, it smelled as if a fire were burning nearby. I worried that the fire in the next county had spread. But that fire was 30 miles away, last I heard. Surely it wasn't that.
No, it wasn't... it was smoke from the south Georgia/north Florida fires... over 300 miles away!
Every air pollution monitor in two counties was in the danger zone. Unreal.
Wednesday a cold front came through and put an end to all that nonsense. We got a whole 1/8 inch of rain. Which was welcome, but... is that all we get? How are my eight types of squash going to thrive on that?
We did finally get most of the garden planted over the weekend. With every seed, I kept thinking, "I'll bet KFarmer has laid her garden by already. I'll bet KFarmer is eating ripe tomatoes by now!" (She's really not, but still I've placated myself by imagining that she is so far south in Georgia that she might as well be in Florida.)
But if I'd been on my toes and planted as early as KFarmer, it would all have frozen at Easter anyway. The county agent says we had the worst late freeze since 1955. Excepting strawberries, there are NO commercial fruits left in Blount county. All were destroyed.
And the people who tried to protect their strawberries by putting water on them lost everything too. Only the people who used row covers saved them.
Anyway. So we're really late getting the garden planted this year. Our healthiest looking plant is actually something that's coming up in the compost pile. I think it's a zuchhini.
Because of course I really needed nine types of squash!
It's a squash experimentation year, and natural forces are playing along.
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County agent also says that a lot of the damage done to larger plants and trees won't show up until later in the summer, when everything starts getting stressed by the heat.
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The nicest recent strange weather event though, the one that made me really smile? It was the rainbow in my sink just after the recent rain. Yep, in my sink!
We're behind planting here, too, and had that same nasty late freeze. All I've got planted so far are spinach, lettuce, radishes, onions and potatoes. I was out weeding spinach in a stocking cap last night!
ReplyDeleteI'll be watching your squash experiment progress. At our place it's a melon experiment this year.
I think everyone is late this year. I certainly am. I just got greens and peas planted last week. I still have much to plant. Hopefully I'll get squash/pumpkins/melons in this weekend. That is weird that you could smell that fire from so far away.
ReplyDeletewow, you really took a hit!
ReplyDeletei noticed all the flowering things here were quite late to bloom. we had such a mild winter then had winter in early spring, everythign was so confused.
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ReplyDeleteZuchhini in the compost. Rainbows in the sink. Strange Spring up here in Ohio, too. Mallards in the birdbath. Global warming missing us by a mile. Brrrrr.
ReplyDeleteLOL!! Yes, I planted early, but still not early enough for the winter garden. It got too hot too fast and the green peas burned up right as they were starting to put out- dang it! I'll plant earlier next year.
ReplyDeleteThe frost only hurt a few tomatoes in the summer garden that I can tell. The rest is doing fine. What really surprised me was that it did not kill one pepper plant- and I planted a bunch, around 30.
I live in Mid-Ga and yes, I picked a tomato today- a green one mind you, but a tomato just the same :)