Sixteen hours a day in March! No problem. It’s been known to happen. Unloading a semi-trailer in a mixed bag of spring weather — rain, then sleet, then snow. No problem. It can’t always be sunny.
As I write these notes we have more mixed precipitation. I’ve measured six inches in the last week in my rain gauge. At least the basement is dry this spring.
I worked till 2 a.m. last night moving plants into a warmer greenhouse. No, not those plants in the parking lot; they are OK. It was the tropical-type plants in baskets. The furnace that heated their greenhouse and was just fine all winter had quit — the pilot light was out and wouldn’t relight. We had gone over to the in-law’s for dinner and came back to discover the temperature in the greenhouse way too low. I looked through all spare parts, but, of course, I couldn’t see what I was looking for.
I set up the backup heater to try and hold the temperature from dropping further. That’s OK for some plants, but not the tropical types. They really want to keep warm. The sky was clearing off and this wasn’t looking good. I called over to a friendly neighbour to see if he had the needed part. I was in luck.
Much later, the day was finally over. In the morning, there was no water pressure in the greenhouses. I checked the house water pressure and looked at where all the water lines ran for signs of a leak. I found the culprit pipe out by the orchard. It may have frozen sometime over winter and then thawed overnight. There was water everywhere — just another small hurdle on the way to a great spring. Hope to see you when the weather improves!
As an addendum, I believe that the reason I had trouble with the furnace in the greenhouse was because the day before the problem I had bleached the greenhouse floor to remove algae. We had also tested the hanging basket drip irrigation and then heated the greenhouse up to remove the humidity and gases. This likely caused further corrosion on the electrical connection to the thermocouple of the furnace. That will teach me — no more spring cleaning.
Evan Davies owns Beltane Nursery at 2915 Highway 3 in Erickson.
