Just Now

My theme choice this week.  Just Now.  I know you were thinking I was gonna put up a baby lamb picture

and that certainly would have worked especially today.

Barely through with my oatmeal and Bet hauls me out into the cold and the “just now” snow, to help with the “just now” lambs.  I took lots of pictures, the two of us had fun working together, surprisingly enough we don’t work side by side all that often.  

 I’ll, or maybe Bet will, tell you more about them, but for now, just now, I want to tell about why I  chose “just now” as a topic this week.

Phenological Events

I’ve written about phenological events before, not often, even though it is one of my favorite subjects.  I wish we, growers of vegetation, had more phenological data at our fingertips for our individual areas, I find it all far more reliable that a square on a calendar.

Phenology is the study of plant and animal behavior related to the immediate climate.  It isn’t a long range predictor but more telling of current situations.  My horses don’t grow thick hair in autumn because the following winter is going to be long and harsh, they grow thick hair because that particular autumn’s weather is chillier day and night and longer in duration.  That would be more of a predictor of an early killing frost that the amount of snow fall two months into the future. 

Thick horse hair would be a good predictor of not getting enough autumn growth on your overwinter produce like onions and cole crops to take them into their winter months.

Spring plantings are far more dependable based on phenology rather than a date on the calendar.  Rarely do plants get too early of a jump on things.  Because it isn’t as simple as a day or two at a certain temperature, nothing as tender as that would be a good predictor for here.  It has far more to do with circumstances building on one another, the soil being warm enough, dry or wet enough, mineral and nutrient releases of significant amounts that cause growth and/or breaks from dormancy.

Determining My Legacy

The sorry thing is, I keep rotten records.  I came to this understanding of phenology as a better predictor of planting times a long time ago and there are some things that really stand out in my mind that I go by because I’ve watched for thirty odd years of ardent gardening.  Unfortunately, I’ve not made many notes, not even the things I just sort of instinctively know nor have I explored and documented further.  But I know with full faith that there is far more to watch and go by that just a few things.

So I’ve determined, along with leaving behind a beautiful farm, with crop and livestock space and cared for wild margins, to leave behind better records of phenological events and what they mean crop wise.  So this year I will be attempting to turn this careening out of control bus of documentation around.  The only thing that will cause me to fail would be an actual bus running me over during the next five years, before I have enough experimentation and documenting down to be of any use.  And that’s a bus I don’t plan on catchin’.

Indian Plum and Daffodils

Indian Plum is one of our earliest bloomers here at VF&G, a trustworthy native.  I know that when Indian Plum begins to leaf out and the buds are just swelling and first popping, I can plant my peas.  I’ve done that.

And now a week later, just now, I have my first narcissus bloom pushin out of its spathe.  Late winter has arrived.