A Cold and Wet Island Winter

Greetings from the island everyone. Hope all of you are doing well and have slowly adjusted to this daylight savings time change. I enjoy having the extra time in the evenings to be outside, but my routine of rising with the morning sun makes me feel like I’m being lazy and sleeping too long now. I’ll just have to start getting up when Mr. Rooster begins his morning crowing, which is around 5:00 a.m.

I’m certainly hoping that the HARD blowing norther we had on the 5th will be the last major one for us. That one had to be some of the strongest north winds I’ve experienced out here, with gusts up to 48 mph. Goodness gracious, there were whitecaps in the lagoon in front of the house! I actually saw pelicans and other birds sitting on the ground in my yard because they could not fly in those winds; it was just ridiculous. The next day I drove around and saw minor damage out here, including someone’s metal wind turbine pole bent at an angle due to the high winds. I also drove the bay shoreline and picked up a few items washed ashore from the high winds, including a 200’ length of nice rope that I’ll find a use for.

This past winter certainly was wet, cold and windy out here on the island, the wettest one in quite some time I believe. My rain tanks have remained full at 1,100 gallons since the end of last Fall, so that’s always a good thing. I’m just thankful that it wasn’t summer, otherwise all of that standing water would have created mosquito heaven.

Well my little tomato plants that I started from seed on Feb 18 are about three inches tall now. I have them in my greenhouse and keep 12 volt gro lites on them to make them stronger before I put them in the ground in about three weeks. I started seeds for 54 plants and ended up with 50, a pretty good ratio. I’ll plant 30 of them, give some away and keep the others for replacements in case a few don’t do well after planting.

I also ended up constructing ten new raised beds in my melon patch area, and am filling them with an assortment of top soil, cow manure, rabbit manure, composted seaweed and anything else organic that the plants will thrive in. The rabbit manure will be a wonderful soil additive that I’m using for the first time this year, and was graciously donated by Bradley and Darla Mondin, who own and operate Donor Organics, a rabbit farm near Seguin. Unlike most nitrogen manures, rabbit manure is a “cold” nitrogen fertilizer, meaning that it can safely be applied directly to your plants without fear of burning them. Gotta love that rabbit poop.

Also beginning this summer, I am going to introduce leafcutter bees into my melon patch area to help with pollination. The past few years, because of a lack of bees on the island, I have had to hand pollinate my melons, which is not nearly as efficient as bee pollination. My tomatoes have always thrived because they are self-pollinating, but melons are not and require bees for successful pollination. Leafcutter bees are a solitary bee and are very docile, unlike the colonized honeybee which will protect the hive and readily sting if threatened.

I’m hoping that the addition of the leafcutter bees will help my melon crop. I have even planted several rose bushes in the melon patch area for the bees, as they use pieces of chewed rose bush leaves (their leaf of preference), to pack behind their eggs that they lay in hollow tubes, which will be provided in their small nesting house that I will put up for them. We shall see how this little endeavor works out.

I want to say thank you to my friend, Cricket Dietert, for giving me a beautiful six foot tall Southern Magnolia tree for me to plant in the yard in remembrance of Barnacle.

Well, that’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and have a great day.