Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["mtncats" <mtncats@myway.com>]

Hey Paul and all,
It's been an unusually cold spring on our mountain.  Lost 1/4 of my tomatoes, 
not to frost but just persistant cold winds.  Uncertain I need to put any out 
however.

Last year by late May there was no size difference between volunteers and the 
seedlings I'd started indoors.  Invited friends up to get their mystery 
tomato plants here.  I know those who crowd large numbers of plants into a 
small space, but I prefer to space them a bit.

Trees here are responding to the cold with delay but morels and fiddlehead 
ferns are right on schedule.  Which is something I'd like to point out the 
importance of: a journal.  Helps to know when to expect and plan.  Better 
memories than mine might remember which week to look for the first morels.  I 
take a peek in the journal.  Surprised a flock of turkeys feeding there, 
uninterested in morels.  

Recent house guests from Rochester, NY marveled at our lush greens that 
thrived through winter under glass (stored nearby).  Then I stood up a tomato 
cage and explained that after 5' tall, they sprawl.  As they hadn't noticed 
the compost pile they were standing on, I made it a point to explain that 
happy plants were more a result of good dirt than climate.  They left 
yesterday, heading into a snow storm (with a bag of just-picked arugula and 
cilantro).

Upstate NY was never on our short-list of potential homesites.  
Albuquerque/Santa Fe was.

Tom (happy in chilly, drizzly central Va)


 --- On Sat 04/14, TradingPostPaul < tradingpost@riseup.net > wrote:
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Heavy crop losses have been reported throughout the
Southeast after last weekend's frigid temperatures, and farmers are bracing
for another expected cold snap next week.



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