It is sunny, mild, and blowing a gale out today! I am overdue with an update; here are my fast-and-loose garden notes from the past month.
Nights are now generally above zero, in the low single-digits. A cold dip is coming early this week, with an overnight (or two) forecast to be around 1 or 2 degrees. I'll bring transplants inside for those nights until the cool spell has passed. Days have been mild, with temperatures in the low to mid teens. The cool temperatures and windy days are making hardening off the tomatoes a little tricky and it is taking longer than in recent years. The transplants have been toughening up, but what they really need is some exposure to heat before they can safely be planted in the garden.
R. pruned two trees in front yard by the south garden, as they were casting half the garden in shade. I don't know what kind of trees they are, but they have prickly stubs along the branches and get tangled easily. The prickles/stubs get caught in one's hair, clothes, and the cutting tool used to prune the trees. It is a welcome relief when this task is finished. R tied and stacked the branches to dry over the summer and the bundles will be burned next Spring.
Most of the herb seeds I started (sown in small containers indoors and in milk jugs outdoors) germinated and grew well, the exception being lemon balm. I have Russian tarragon, curly parsley, summer savoury, sage, feverfew, dill (‘Bouquet’), and a wee bit of marjoram on the go. I transplanted the summer savoury and parsley in several raised beds this week. Having recently read up on Russian tarragon (a very hardy but less flavourful variety than French tarragon), I expect I will be sharing it either with people who have the acreage to allow it to spread or who are willing to watch it like a hawk to prevent it from taking over their gardens. Once the days are consistently warm, basil seed will be planted in a raised bed.
In the last two weeks, these seedlings have been planted in the garden: cabbage (Brunswick and Copenhagen), kale (mixed), leeks (Giant Musselburgh), skirret, green bunching onions, and Rossa Lunga di Firenze onion starts (both look similar to leek seedlings).
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| Cabbage, kale, calendula, and feverfew |
R bought some onions sets at Canadian Tire (mixed – yellow, white, and red) and these were planted April 28th.
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| Onion bed (from sets) - May 24th |
Two varieties of dry cooking peas (Gold Harvest and Swedish Red) were sown, as well as snow peas (Green Beauty), carrots (Red Chantenay, Jaune Obtus du Doubs, Scarlet Nantes, Pusa Asita Black, and Cosmic Purple), and zucchini (‘Dark Green’ and ‘Saffron’). I also sowed spinach (Bloomington), lettuce/greens (Crisp Mint, Frilly Endive, Blushed Butter Oak, and Rouge D’Hiver), and beets (mixed and Detroit Red).
Pineapple sage, Mojito mint (both overwintered from last summer), Indian mint, and Pineapple mint (the latter two purchased at the local nursery this past week) were planted in large pots two days ago.
Most of the carrots are planted in raised beds. Keeping the sandy soil we have in the beds moist enough for the carrot seed to germinate can be a challenge, even when the patch is covered by boards or burlap. We decided to plant some older seed in large plastic containers with tops as an experiment. They kept the moisture in perfectly and the seed planted in these containers germinated much more quickly than the seed in the raised beds (still waiting for most of the latter to germinate, frankly).
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| Carrots (assorted varieties) - May 24th |
AmaRosa potatoes from last summer and two potato varieties R. bought this year ('Red Thumb' and 'Red Potato', from Canadian Tire) were planted early in May.
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| Potatoes coming up - May 24th |
In a jumping the gun moment of optimism, I planted two Pendulina and 3 Dwarf Emerald Giant tomato transplants in the last few days. I did not expect days of gusting wind to follow!
Six skirret seedlings were planted in the East garden around May 17th.
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| Skirret seedlings |
‘Blacktail Mountain’ watermelon was started indoors under lights and on a heat mat on May 7th.
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| Blacktail Mountain watermelon - May 24th |
North Georgia Candy Roaster (C. maxima), Lower Salmon River (C. maxima), and Burpee's Butterbush (C. moschata) were sown May 20th. The seeds were started in tall pots set in the south garden. There isn't room this Spring to start them indoors under grow lights; the watermelon is under the grow light and there simply isn't room in the plant room, as the tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos still have to be brought indoors every night.
After hearing a friend talk enthusiastically about the abundant harvest of tomatillos she had last summer (not to mention the many batches of salsa verde that followed), I decided to try my hand at growing tomatillos this year. Two varieties were started in mid-April: Toma Verde, a round, green, “classic” variety, and Queen of Malinalco, an elongated, sweet, rare yellow variety.
I started hardening off the tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers on May 1st. The weather seemed to be on track for a warm month, but it turned cool again by the second week.
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| Tomatoes & peppers - early May |
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| Anaheim peppers - early May |
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| Tomatoes & peppers - May 14th |
The garlic in the garlic patch is now all up (Mother-of-Pearl was the main straggler). The Gold Harvest and Swedish Red peas have all come up as well.
Volunteer garlic has been popping up in the East and South gardens as well as in several of the raised beds for the last month! At least 20 of them (we stopped counting). They have been relocated to a flower (now “garlic and flower”) bed and to two raised beds along the driveway.
The night of May 15th, R came home to find a young moose curled up in the garlic patch. The moose got up, nibbled on the apple tree behind the house, then left...only to return later in the evening to sleep in the garlic patch again. I love the moose and deer that visit, but you can imagine the damage it often does to what’s growing. A large portion of three rows of garlic (mostly Red Russian) were mightily squished. I packed mulch around their bases the following day and cross my fingers that they will rebound.
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| Garlic patch - May 14th |
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| Moose in the garlic - May 15th (click to enlarge) |
In an effort to keep the deer from eating half the garden, we have covered some crops (lettuce, cabbage, beets) with floating row cover, and have put plastic mesh around others (peas, strawberries). I am prepared to cover the tomato plants nightly well before frost is an issue to keep the deer from eating the tomatoes. Two years ago, the deer feasted on the determinate tomatoes planted in the East garden toward the end of the season. Last year, I covered tomatoes starting mid-summer. One does what one has to do. It certainly adds a lot of extra work. The straightforward planting-watering-harvesting of the garden that we used to do every summer is a thing of the past.
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| Strawberry bed - May 24th |
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| Gold Harvest cooking peas - May 24th |
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| Gold Harvest cooking peas - May 24th |
Blossoms are out on the apple tree and crabapple trees and buds are just appearing on the ornamental cherry tree near the south garden. Dandelions are everywhere, and are hundreds of volunteer sunflowers seedlings. Bachelor Buttons and poppies have come up, self-seeded from last summer's flowers. Hoping that the bees that were merrily buzzing about in early May come back soon.
