Strawberries and a Warm Spring

Depending on how you look at at it, the weather can be a kind of pleasant surprise or a maddening unknown variable. Last fall it was in the first category. When the forecast said rain it would probably rain. This year it isn't like that. When the forecast says small chance of rain, it doesn't rain. When the forecast says good chance of rain, it doesn't rain. We've found that this spring the weather forecast is no more accurate than the farmer's almanac which isn't saying much since the farmer's almanac was written last year. Good thing we've got the drip system running!


I've had the feeling all fall and winter that this spring and summer are going to be unusually hot and dry. Now I don't consider myself a soothsayer, but when it comes to the weather in Oklahoma it will be extreme so there isn't any need to fence-sit on climate forecasting. Its better to make a prediction and act on it because the weather certainly won't be average.

So that having been said, we've pulled all the frost covers for the strawberries and don't intend to put them back. Good thing too because they started blooming already! They are a bit small for this time of year because we had such a dry winter but at least 90% of them survived our (mis)management.

Continuing on the theme of a warm spring and useless weather forecasts, here I am rushing to put in corn, beans, and squash before the forecasted rain. This was Wednesday night and it was predicted to rain Thursday morning. We used the Planet Jr seeders to plant corn, beans, and squash in the South field that isn't irrigated so I needed to put them in right before a rain. Its two weeks early, but I don't think we are going to have another freeze - you can't win if you don't play! It didn't rain that night. Oh well.