I really do believe in a day of rest. I personally have religious reasons for selecting Sunday, but it also just makes sense because the drug store, library, post office, bank, and everywhere else is closed on Sunday. So I just really relax that day. Today was no different.
The only gardening I did today was to drag the house out to the greenhouse, hook up the wand, and water my lettuce, peas, beets, and other winter crops. Remember I only planted them three or four days ago, so they are not up, but just as in summer, the soil needs to stay moist for the seeds to germinate. It was getting pretty dry today, so I chose to water the whole bed rather than hand-water each area. Afterwards, and this is the important part, I unhooked the hoses from each other and the frost-free faucet, drained them, and left them where they would be in the sun the whole day.
Last year, I had the water freeze so hard, I don't know if you remember, back at the end of November. It was below 0º just after Thanksgiving, and it froze my 4-way BRASS manifold, the frost-free faucet (long story), and the hoses, and cracked the whole shooting match. So I totally recommend making sure everything is unhooked and drained before nightfall. Our nights are still very cold, even though the days, like today, are 65-70º.
I also watered the chickens. I've taken to just carrying out a pitcher of water every other day so it stays relatively thawed. Their waterer is 5-gallons and if 5 gallons freeze hard, it can be a week of nice weather before it thaws out all the way, so I just let it get real low and then just keep enough water in there to last the day. Just a note for anyone out there keeping fowl for the first time. If you are keeping chickens for eggs, realize that some breeds will not lay much at all during the winter, and some will lay nearly daily. Last winter, my hens were only a season old and the 7 of them laid between 5-7 eggs daily. This year, when they are a year old, they haven't laid an egg in a month. I'm still feeding them, but not reaping any rewards. My barred rocks didn't ever lay much during the winter when I was a kid, so I was shocked that these Red Sex-Link pullets laid last winter.
Also, I've recently been recieving the first of the year's seed catalogs. I am starting to sit down and plan next year's garden, including extending my season in the spring with the greenhouse, and in the fall by using frost-tolerant veggies and things that do better after a frost, like parsnips, beets, and brussels sprouts. I'm developing a system, like a cardboard slider, to tell me when to plant certain seeds for certain germination times and harvest times, and when I finish it, it will be on the garden club website for you to download if you like.
That's all for today. Thanks for reading!
Regina
