Circle M Farm

I don’t know. The only thing that could set the garden back more right now is a plague of crows!

Actually, I suppose it’s really just me that’s been set back. I have it on my calendar to plant onions and potatoes, but I’m inside today while a blizzard howls around the house, with branch-breaking gusts and 6 inches of heavy snow on the ground. The kids had a day off school and may again tomorrow, judging by the forecast. I’ve shoveled off the cold frames three times already, while my tiny seedlings grow spindly reaching for the sparse sun.

But we did need rain for the seeds already in, and snow is about as gentle as it gets for irrigation this time of year. No damaging hail, and no run-off taking shallow seeds off into the paths. Old-timers used to call late-spring snows “Poor Man’s Fertilizer,” and in fact snow is full of nitrogen and sulfur. Might as well work with the weather, and spend the storm taking stock of what seedlings should be started next or re-configuring the planting timetable. A bonus is that recently-planted plots are hidden from the terrible scratching chickens, a plague of my own making, since I don’t fence them.

The farm is undeniably beautiful like this. And I always do feel that the animals in the barns and henhouses are warmer with a cozy blanket of snow enrobing the foundations. Lily is inside today but all the bucklings are happily frolicking in their pen. Hulaballoo is now in charge in there, encamped on top of the feed bucket and head-butting everyone else off. Smaller and with those weak ears flopping, he’s an unlikely king of the hill. An adorable little stinker.

I’ve got lettuces, spinach, peas, carrots, onions and radishes up in the garden. The carrots and greens are protected, and they look fine under the row covers. But the exposed radishes are wilted and I fear they may be lost. Everything about this farm is an adventure! We’ll see what May brings.