March 11, 2026
Introduction
The title is taken from the song “The Morning After” that was written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, which won Best Original Song at the 45th Academy Awards. The truth of the matter, in my opinion, is that it’s a cheesy song from a cheesy movie. Again, my opinion, ours may differ.
I’m using this because the song implies that after a storm, there is a new beginning or a new reality. And that’s what we are talking about for the rest of this entry.
The Greenhouse
The last entry highlighted the preparations in the greenhouse for the upcoming winter weather. There was a lot of uncertainty. We didn’t know if our plan had any real merit or if we would be wiped out like the year before.
December 2026 started with fairly normal temperatures, with high temperatures ranging from the 70s to the 40s and the lows ranging from the 40s to the upper 10s. Then, during the week of the 25th, it got cold. The high on the 28th was 72, and on the 29th was 12. Sixty-degree temperature change. The lows stayed around 12 degrees for the next several days. The wind made the Wind Chill Index around -18.
These were the same conditions as last year. We expected the worst.
It looks like our planning worked for the most part. We completely lost about 1% of the plants and had a few others, about 5%, mainly those on the floor, show any effects. I think we did okay.
A picture from December 31st.
Fortunately, that was the coldest week of winter, at least so far.
Greenhouse pictures from the last part of January.
During the last week of January, I noticed that some of the hanging plants were not getting enough light. This led to a new being added. I really like these. They light up the entire room.
The bees
I didn’t want to bother the bees too soon, so I waited until February 16th to check on them. Three of the four colonies survived, but the fourth one froze out.
I know they froze because of the way I found them. Hundreds of bodies were found trying to block the wind. I’m still somewhat upset about it, but there’s nothing that can be done about it.
I found about 30 pounds of honey in the box that I distributed to the rest of the bees. The video below partially shows what happened next.
Springtime preps
It’s probably safe to say we never stopped preparing for spring because of the way we cared for the plants. That said, we began taking down the bubble wrap in the first week of March to let more natural light in. At this point, all of the bubble wrap has been removed, and parts of the styrofoam insulation – it is seemingly easier to put up than take out, go figure.
We are slowly starting plants. So far we have started:
- three types of tomatoes
- three types of peppers
- two types of bee balm
- baby breathe
- celosia
- rudbeckia
- and several types of herbs
Web site news
The greenhouse and information concerning plant sales, care, general information, and more can be found at Linda’s Honey Bee Lane.
This has been fun to set up. And there will be more added in the near future.
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