After planting over 250 grapevines on Friday, Saturday brought saturating rains...no chance for working in the garden at all. Luckily we had another type of "shower" planned for that afternoon - Gracie's surprise bridal shower, which sure made up for all the rain!
Our desert tortoise, Oliver, has figured out that he can push on the screen door and get it open (we never latched it until today). With temperatures in the 70's, we have been leaving our kitchen door open, letting the screen door swing back - never thinking anything of it. So yesterday, a bicyclist stopped in the middle of the road and yelled for Sam, who was playing with the dogs across the street. He had seen this rather large turtle in the middle of the road and did not want it to get hit, so he stopped right in front of it and guarded it against possible cars. He was afraid to pick it up, not knowing what kind of turtle it was and I can't blame him, with a large pond visible from the road, it may have been a snapping turtle. Sam met the turtle rescuer, thanked him and picked up the turtle, explaining that he was our pet...ugh, what kind of pet do you have running loose in your house?
We rented a plastic mulch layer attachment this morning and bought a roll of plastic mulch. In less than 2 hours, Jeff had 10 rows made...and this was the first time we ever used an attachment like this. We still had drip irrigation line left from last year and this attachment made raised bed, laid down the irrigation line, covered everything with plastic mulch and scooped up some dirt around the edges to make sure the plastic cover is secure. We also bought a tool to make holes in the plastic to drop seeds - thinking of squash, pumpkins and cucumbers. Mostly though we are planning to use these mulched beds for plants: tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, onions and melons. It should hold back a lot of weeds and reduce water usage from the irrigation. 
Bought 3 yards of netting today (the kind you would make little girl's ballerina skirts out of) - in a drab brown color. It was 50% off, so I think the cost was 75 cents a yard. I doubled up the fabric and started sewing strips together, just wide enough for the bars of soap we have been collecting. Most of the soap came from Zach, who travels the most :) I cut each 3 yard strip into 6 pieces and then inserted the soap. This made a total of 48 "bags" for the soap. Tomorrow, I will tie one bag on each fruit tree, and space them out along the grape trellises. Not sure how many more I need, but I think this might work.
Not only did we have a relatively mild winter, but also an unseasonably warm February and early March. Last Thursday, the temperature crept up to 68 degree F and for next week, the forecast predicts temperature in the upper 70's....this is definitely causing concern for fruit crops, fruit trees as well as blackberries. Warm weather will cause some trees and brambles to bloom early, making them susceptible to frost damage - and we still have 2 weeks of winter left! According to the National weather service, temperatures have been running nearly 6 degrees above average in February, and more than 4 degrees above average already in March. But - the warm weather is great for getting a head start in cleaning up flower beds, and even painting fences. Today we planted two more fruit trees - Stanley Plums, there were a Christmas present which arrived via courier on Friday.
We celebrated Anja's babyshower over the weekend with lots of family and friends. It was a perfect day, sunny and breezy and everyone enjoyed walking around outside. We also managed to plant 2 flats of pansies before the "party", and trimmed more brambles as well as our roses and fruit trees.
