I have been converting my garden to raised beds. At first, I did this to make it easier to maintain my garden in spite of pets, pests, and getting older. I have also found it is a handy way to organize my planting, rotate crops, and plant beneficial varieties together. I plan to use this model to organize my blogging. Raise a subject, protect it from life’s small attackers, and keep things together that benefit each other.
Both of my parents grew up on farms, but I am a city kid. Even so, I grew up with the idea that it was important to consider how everything affected my extended family, my cousins who grew up in the country, and the source of all of our food. Waxing nostalgic!
When I was a kid, there was sloppy snow in March, it would melt and dry out in April, May would be warm enough to plant cool season crops and plan which warm season crops to grow over the summer which would be planted on Memorial Day weekend, June would really begin warming up, July and August would be hot and there would be lots of fresh vegetables from the garden, September would have warm days and cool nights, I would decide which crops to finish so I could plant another round of cool season crops before the fun ended, October would not have enough sun to keep the garden going so it would be wound down for the winter.
Now? We have had major snow events in April. May has oscillated between warmer than average and colder, almost freezing. Our farmers have lost prime planting time to too cool weather and too wet conditions; they even have to decide whether planting will be worthwhile this year. The bottom line is our notoriously variable, but over all predictable, Minnesota weather has mutated into an utter stranger.
The first half of June is expected to be warmer than average which will help the farm crops catch up, if they have survived so far. I do not have much planted. I will be using the first weekend in June, and the more moderate weather, to get the ground prepared and most things planted.
I feel like I have to learn to live in Minnesota, the state I have lived in my whole life, all over again. I love Minnesota. We will get through this. But I have no idea what it will look like in the future. Spring weather? or oscillations between frost and heat? Hot, food growing summers? or wildly variable and destructive weather? Warm, colorful autumns? or unreliable harvests? Snowy, white, crystal winters? or brown Christmases then ice? Okay, my dear Minnesota, here we go!