Fruits are Budding!

Hardy Chicago Fig beginning to fruit in late March near Washington D.C.

Hopefully our baby figs will survive tonight's frost! March 26th, 2012.

A mild Winter and early Spring for the Mid-Atlantic region has had an excellent effect on the flora.  Our March temperatures have been in the high 60’s and 70’s, even up into the 80’s.  Overnight frosts have thankfully stayed away thus far.  The Cherry Blossoms in Washington D.C. bloomed two weeks earlier than usual, the grass is already waiting for the second mow of the season and our fruit trees (as you can see in the Hardy Chicago fig on the left) have not only broken dormancy, but are growing fruit!

Update: Tonight the temperatures are forecast to drop into the high 20’s!  Darn the late March freeze!  It will be windy, too.  This type of advection frost resists most known and applicable frost prevention techniques.  Temperatures dropping below 29˚F can damage budding and flowering plants.  At only 27˚F you begin to see 90% kill rates.  We’ll just have to cross our fingers and hope that our fig location is good and our other fruit trees are resilient!

What’s Budding Early?

An early Spring is a brilliant time to be working the soil full of compost, manure and peat, developing the light, crumbly loam that our vegetables love so much.  The ground is soft with rain and full of earthworms, making new plantings an easy endeavor.  Tomato, pepper and luffa seedlings are outside in the perfectly overcast and drizzly days getting used to the climate and hardening off.  By the looks of the current weather pattern, those seedlings will go in the ground in a week, making this the earliest planting season in the Suburban Hayseed’s experience!

Mild winters and an early spring can be a blessing and a challenge.  If you have planned well and prepared early, you can take advantage of the weather and get a several week jump on summer.  Your plants will have developed a strong and deep root system by the time they get baked in the dog days.  Your Early Girl tomatoes might share their fruit a month before you usually get it.  And my favorite, your fruiting trees, bushes and vines will have you making pies that much faster!  That is, provided the late frost doesn’t sneak in and wreak your work!

Two days ahead of our potential frost I tried out the macro ability of my iPhone to take some pictures of the state of plants in the Washington D.C. metro area.  Here’s to hoping all of this beauty survives to flourish!

 

Bleeding Hearts are in gorgeous bloom!

Bleeding Hearts are only about a foot tall so far and are blooming bountifully.

 

Apple Blossoms ready to bloom on March 25th, 2012.

The apple blossoms thankfully have not yet opened.

 

Weeping Mulberry with berries already forming on March 25th, 2012

Berries are already forming on this Weeping Mulberry

Oh, hoary frost of late onset, please stay away.  Let the night be cool, not frozen. May the buds of this year’s plenty stay snug by the warmth of the day.

~The Suburban Hayseed

The Joy of Backyard Chickens!

Lay or Bust - Backyard ChickensOne of the reasons The Suburban Hayseed got his name was because he’s got chickens living in a chicken tractor in the back yard.  Not everyone does (though many more should).

There are a lot of questions asked about the motivations leading to this adventure and the logistics concerning backyard chickens.  I’ll answer a few of them in a minute, but first, check out this video that will answer the biggest question: why? 

The pure joy and wonder on that little face and in that little voice makes it all worthwhile!  The eggs are delicious and fresh, the constant flow of organic fertilizer is nice, the chickens are amusing to watch and there hasn’t been a tick on any member of the household since the chickens arrived.  All great benefits, yes.  Yet the true and compelling reason to have those chickens are the experience, joy, wonder, friendship and education they bring to the children.

The Suburban Hayseed has a whole bunch of interesting and amusing chicken adventures.  Check back often to follow the story.  Better yet, check out the sidebar and Subscribe to The Suburban Hayseed and keep abreast of the adventures!

A sneak peak at some upcoming Backyard Chickens topics:
  • The Chicken Tractor: an adventure in re-purposed pallets.
  • Peppa, the Hurricane Chicken.
  • How much work do Chickens really require?
  • Do Chicken make good neighbors? A tutorial on clipping wings.

Cheers!

~The Suburban Hayseed.