The Unknown

What’s happening on Mist Mountain?  A Walk Around in April, a very unpredictable month.

The unknown, the unpredictable, the untouched umbrella.  That’s April.  The untouched umbrella is just a way of life in the Pacific Northwest.  People just don’t use them.  We carry them around, make sure one is in the car, but by the time the perfect opportunity comes around that there is no wind, and we are not in a hurry, and maybe a child is getting sopped we have forgotten that we have one at hand.  Here we just keep moving.  Nothing gets cancelled, just rearranged.  There is almost a back up plan for just in case it rains, because the odds are huge.

The unknown and the unpredictable apply to everything, especially in April.  Gardening is a guessing game every year.  It is not something for the light of heart.  What worked “last time” will not necessarily work “this time”.  The temperatures fluctuate hour by hour, day by day.  Germination?  Who knows.  My master gardener friends and I laugh at the predicted germination on the back of the seed packets.  We have a running dialogue about how many times we had to plant the peas before some finally came up. The average now I think is about three.  Buy many seeds is our motto.

The crazy weather is actually good for planting, but you have to get it right.  This week we went from 90 degrees to 40 and raining.  The question now is, will we get another warm spell after the rain?  So I planted.  The 90 degrees warmed the soil.  The rain wet everything down.  If it warms, they will germinate; if it doesn’t I will replant.

The unknown makes it all a challenge.  Everything you think you learned may not work this time.  You have to be flexible and you need to be happy with what does grow and  be realistic.  Do not even try to grow bananas.

And an umbrella may help in a hail storm.