Hello Everyone:
I've been lucky so far this year, the weather has been quite mild and so I have been able to do a lot more work in the barn.
As well, the nursery has required much less heat to stay warm. It's first real test this year was last night, with a measured "inside the barn" temperature of -14 degrees.
The temperature in the nursery was a balmy plus eleven.
Here is the first sign of spring at Whitsend...the first seeds to sprout.These are the first round of green onions, a cold tolerant variety called Evergreen Hardy.
They are typically planted in late summer for the cold late fall weather. However, I also choose them for my first planting of the year as they are planted out into the field around late April, when the weather can be still relatively cold at night.
I plant some crops as early as possible to alleviate crowding in the nursery.
The only other crop in the nursery right now are the bulb onions. Onions grow very slowly for the first few weeks, and require 10 to 12 weeks of nursery growth before they are ready to plant out.
Next in line for seeding are celery, celeriac, and eggplant...their turn is in the coming week.
In the meantime, I continue to forge ahead on the ice fridge. Time is running out - will it be done when there is still ice to place in it?It's been a bit of a slow build so far. I have designed it so that it may be quickly dismantled and moved and reassembled as I don't intend to leave it here in the middle of the barn all year.
Our first load of sawsut insulatiion has arrived. I'll be filling the first wall sections this week and then I will know just how good I am at math.
Then, the work on the sliding shelves and swing doors. Unless I run into some unforseen difficulty, there whould be a lot more substance to this photo in about seven days.