After weeks of dormancy, a few days of blazing sunshine in March gave us the confidence to give the hoop house a breather and check out what was growing inside.
We had pretty much left everything alone for January and February as we hunkered down through bitter cold, dull days. Snow had completely covered the house a few times and I could see ice flaking off the inside was I removed snow (sometimes 5 inches) off the taunt plastic.
If I had been blind-folded when I entered the hoop house on St. Patrick's Day , I would have experienced a flash-back of a visit to the tropical forest pavilion at the Toronto Metro Zoo (though devoid of primates and tourists).
The space was warm, and the air was thick with the smell of humid, moist earth, and wet wood. Here and there, water was dripping from the curved ceiling.
The carrots, spinach, kale and tender greens had survived the dark days of winter, and maybe even grew a bit. Unfortunately, so did the chickweed which must have snuck into the garden along with some soil or manure.Actually, the chickweed had thrived and was overgrowing everything else.
Who knew I'd be weeding the garden in
March! In some areas I was removing clumps at a time, but in others I had to gently remove the tendrils from around the greens. Throughout I had to be careful not to uproot the yummies when I removed the ickies.Of course, I did end up pulling up a lot of the tender shoots that I was attempting to rescue, but the earth was so soft I simply made a hole with my finger and replaced the root.
When I checked on the re-plants a couple of weeks later, they were growing happily, now that their strangling housemates had been evicted.
As I weeded the greens and thinned the carrots, I noticed the soil was warm and loose, having never been trampled by two or four-legged creatures all winter. Worms rose to the surface, rising cobra-like as if to to catch a bit of warmth or fragrance, before slithering off.
A few dozen baby carrots were pulled as we thinned the crop. Tender and flavourful, our first crop of 2011 was crisp and candy-sweet.
