Winter precip continues

A carrot grows in the snow.

For the last week, temperatures have barely been above freezing, and some days haven't been out of the 20s.

Keeping the greenhouse warm for seed starts has been more challenging, as several times the propane bottles have run empty.

The propane heater in the greenhouse has been able to keep interior temperatures in the 60s even when it's in the 20s outside, but pepper seeds and similar crops needs temps in the 70s or 80s to germinate. No-show's and damping off have been the result of the cool, wet climate indoors.

Most of all, the days have been cloudy. The lack of direct sunlight is leaving the seedlings that have come up a little stunted. Basil has almost ceased growing at all. Two trial hydroponic tomato plants are almost dead, and a trial eggplant that has had a fruit growing for about 3 months now is just remaining static, and the eggplant is turning yellow, not purple.

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Tomato harvest resumes

With cooler temperatures this fall, my tomatoes, which I thought had reached the end of their lives at the end of summer, have rebounded and are producing fruit again.

Sweet peas sown January 27, 2017

On January 28, 1986, I skipped classes at Waxahachie High to sow sweet peas in the field next to my house.

I was unaware that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded that morning until my friend called me and asked if I had heard the news. Immediately, I turned on the TV and found all the major networks covering the story.

Still, the events of that day are tied together in my memory, and each year that I sow sweet peas, I remember the date that I sowed Wando sweet peas and harvest the greatest yield I've ever picked.

This year as the date approached, I made sure to have seed on hand, and I sowed the peas on Friday, January 27, 2017, in the same field where I grew sweet peas in 1986.

Gourd harvest

Today, the gourds were harvested, just before a quick rain.The vines grew in 10 Bato buckets in an outdoor hydroponic system.They were started as plugs back in late May and grew through the summer.

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