I just left them there over the winter, no watering.
Backporch Tulips
I just left them there over the winter, no watering.
Category: Spring
I just left them there over the winter, no watering.
Seed Potatoes
My seed potatoes came today. Two pounds of Banana fingerlings. I put them on a shallow plate to expose them to light for the next two weeks so they can sprout. Fingers crossed for a better crop this year. More about growing potatoes here.
Peas
I used the perfect planting weather today (63F and sunny in the morning and showers in the forecast for the afternoon) to plant peas. I planted two rows (Sugar Snaps) and sowed spinach in between (Giant Noble). I also planted two rows of carrots (Bolero, pelleted) and spring radishes in between (French Breakfast). These are the first crops I sowed in the plot this spring! This evening, we will have our annual gardeners meeting. Spring is officially here.
Today in the Garden
Seed starting
I finally started my first seeds indoors. I sowed hot Thai pepper and eggplant. Five each (I will only need a couple of plants each). My setup is just one seed tray on a heat mat under a grow light. We have a small space so the seed-starting operation is tucked away in a corner of my son’s room in front of an unused door.
March
Crop List 2019
Here is my final crop list for 2019. (SHPC=Sand Hill Preservation Center):
- Cucumbers: Longfellow slicer (have)
- Tomatoes, early: Break O’Day, Paul Robson (all ordered from SHPC)
- Tomatoes, mid-season: Dr. Wyche’s Yellow (ordered from SHPC)
- Tomatoes, late: Green Zebra, Baker Family Heirloom (all from SHPC)
- Eggplant, Pingtung Long (ordered from SHPC)
- Eggplant, Fairy Tale (ordered from Johnny’s)
- Hot pepper, Thai Bangkok (ordered from Johnny’s)
- Butternut squash (have)
- Basil, Genovese (have)
- Carrots, Bolero (have)
- Carrots, Rainbow (ordered from Johnny’s)
- Radish, French Breakfast (have)
- Garlic, Russian Red (hardneck, saved), Transsylvania (soft neck, Burpee)
- Beets, Golden beets (have)
- Potatoes, Banana fingerling (ordered from Fedco Moosetubers)
- Swiss chard, Bright Lights (have)
- Kale, Tuscan (have) and Curly (have)
- Lettuce, butterhead, Kagran summer (ordered from SHPC)
- Lettuce, leaf, Bronze Beauty (ordered from SHPC)
- Greens, fall green mix (ordered from SHPC)
- Peas, sugar snap (ordered from SHPC)
- Pole beans, Kentucky Wonder (have)
- Bush beans, Tendergreen (have)
- Spinach, Bloomsdale (have)
- Bok choy (have)
- Leeks (buy seedlings)
- Rosemary, sage (have)
- Parsley, thyme (buy seedlings)
- Nasturtium, Dwarf Jewel (have)
- Cosmos, Versailles mix (ordered from Johnny’s)
- Dahlias (have and/or buy tubers)
- Zinnias (have)
- Marigolds, petite mix (ordered from SHPC)
- Sunflower Hopi Dye (ordered from SHPC)
- Ornamental kale, Crane Feather Kind White (ordered from Johnny’s)
I placed my Fedco order on January 31, my Johnny’s order on February 4 and my order with Sand Hill Preservation Center on March 9.
Hay
Today, I spent a couple of hours in my plot weeding (in particular the Yellow Nutsedge), spreading the hay I got last week and thinning the butterhead salad. I harvested the remaining radishes and sowed new ones. I also sowed more kale, carrots (Bolero), butternut squash (might be too late, but the first time around nothing came up), golden beets, mixed greens and nasturtiums.
I love using hay in the garden. It smells good, looks pretty and does a great job suppressing weeds and retaining moisture. I still had a thin layer from the winter but used up about half the bale to fortify it. Where I had freshly sowed seeds, I did not mulch with the hay but will do so once the seedlings appear. That’s why you see those thin lines of soil in the picture below.
Salad
I spent some time in the garden today weeding and planting. The cucumbers I had direct-sowed a few weeks ago have not made an appearance (it worked last year) so I planted some seedlings in their spot, a cucumber “Gateway” and an eggplant “Calliope”. I also planted a hot Thai pepper next to the pole beans, which are starting to poke through the soil. I got those three plants from Whole Foods, a new (last minute) source of seedlings for me. Three of the four overwintered dahlias came in nicely. I also sowed more cosmos (with the dahlias) and kale (next to the Swiss Chard) and walked over to Agricultural Hall and got some hay from Bill. I plan to add a heavy layer of hay to suppress the weeds in my plot – yellow nutsedge and bindweed seem to be out of control.
Our community garden is right along the Southwest Corridor Park and tomorrow morning, hundreds of bike riders will be starting (and finishing) their annual Bike-A-Thon rides right across from our garden. Our family has been supporting Bikes Not Bombs for years, both by fundraising and riding the Bike-A-Thon and by volunteering. My husband and 12 year-old son volunteered last night. They prepped food for the riders and got to take some of it home. So tonight for dinner, we will have Bike-A-Thon pasta and a side salad with lettuce (Butterhead “Kagraner Sommer” from Renee’s Garden) and breakfast radishes from the garden.
Garden Day
Today, I spent 3,5 hours in the garden weeding and planting (bush beans, pole beans and carrots). I had neglected a large section of my plot that had not been planted yet (basically the entire right side of the plot starting at the pea trellis all the way to the fence) and it was overgrown with all kinds of weeds of the worst kind, including bindweed and yellow nutsedge. I have so much nutsedge in my plot, it is almost tragic. All of it was still small and growing and had not flowered or gone to seed. I used to use the compost from our community garden bins in past years and must have introduced the invasive weed this way. I got it all out (for now) and I feel very accomplished. The plot looks nice and clean. I also laid a new brick/paver path down the middle. Now I need to get more hay or straw to mulch the garden as the salt marsh hay cover is getting thin in some spots. No sign of the squash or cucumbers yet. I hope my direct sowing method worked. The nasturtiums I planted the same day are coming up, they are still tiny, I did not see them two days ago. I also hilled my potatoes today and they are now at ground-level. I took out the kale I direct-sowed a while ago. The plants were scrawny and chewed up. I will try to get some transplants. I also harvested some radishes and rhubarb.