Early Spring in the Garden

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Lily Fritillaria (Checkered Lillies) in the open garden

Late April/Early May there was lots going on in the garden. Lily fritillaria (above) bloomed, daffoils came and went...

First batch of daffodils Double Daffodils

Winter Sowing cartons were opened up, and in some cases transplanted. Everything that went in did pretty well (bloomsdale spinach, rocky top lettuce mix, rainbow chard, mache, anise hyssop, foxglove, and white poppies) except: red poppies, purple/white poppies, sweet peas (both cascadia and sugar magnolia tendril), and I think the giant red mustard got fried.

Winter Sowing Progress
Bloomsdale Long-standing Spinach (winter sown, transplanted)

The red mustard that failed in winter sowing, I had better from indoor seed starting that happens in March & April. The indoor spinach came out terrible, but the winter sown spinach came out much better. And the missing sweet peas, I just direct sowed in the garden in late April and it started coming up in early May.

Seedlings in the indoor growing setup

Indoor-grown seedling get repotted into Happy Frog potting soil once they have their first or second set of true leaves...which led to an absolute surplus of tomatoes. I think I'm only going to keep 2 chocolate cherry tomato, 2 purple Cherokee tomato, 2 Amish paste tomato, and 2 long purple eggplant. There was a second batch of seed starting for the nasturtium, basil, butternut, blue hubbard, grey zucchini, green scallop, and acorn bush squashes.

Potting up the indoor-grown  tomatoes, eggplants, mustard, and chard
Potting up the squashes, nasturtium, and basil

I put the extra seedlings in peat pots for sharing with others, and immediately started hardening them off to make room for the next batch of seedlings that need to be potted up (and take more space!).

Hardening off the tomato & eggplant seedlings

Tomatoes and eggplants were moved into the garden undercover May 8, and planted in the ground the next day. A few chilly nights in the ~41-degree zone were predicted, but I risked it with the plants under cover.

Tomato seedlings hardened off and in the garden

And I had my first asparagus May 7!

First asparagus of teh season

The garden doesn't look amazing in early spring, but with the leaf mold mulching all the beds and some of the structures being slowly added in...we see progress! Catmint, Meadow Sage, and Johnson's Blue geranium grew tall enough to cover the bare sticks pruned back in autumn. Butterfly bush is just sprouting leaves at its base. Purple sensation & globemaster alliums look like they'll bloom soon, as will the Centaurea montana & chives.

Vegetable Garden from the Northeast
April 25, 2021
Open garden from the west
May 4, 2021
The open garden from the southeast
May 4, 2021
The whole garden in late April
April 29, 2021




1 comments:

missris said...

I'm so impressed! You're going to eat like kings this summer.