Heat Wave

Well I thought the weather might turn and it did, wow did it get hot!!! The last weekend in March was record breaking heat... high 80s and low 90s, crazy hot!

I didn't do any gardening this past weekend. Other than watering the plants and taking my seed trays out to enjoy the sun, I didn't do a thing... too hot! Monday night though I broke down, despite the heat and tilled the tomato bed, and... once again, tore the peppermint out of the herb garden and tilled it. Never, ever, ever plant mint in the ground. I'm going to regret that forever.

I've had a lot of discussions with local gardeners and they are saying to go for it and plant seeds even though we're not at the frost date yet. Theory is that the ground is so warm now that even if the temps drop some that the ground itself won't get cold enough to hurt the seeds as long as their not the high temp plants.

I decided to gamble in a safe way and planted green bean seeds. For the rest I'm going to wait until I the weekend and wait to see what the long range forecast is predicting. The last frost date here is between mid-April and the end. If this weekend's long range forecast looks reasonably warm I'm going to plant a bunch of seeds. My seed trays are going to be kept safe for a while longer though. Not willing to take a gamble on those cause I don't get a chance for a "re-do" on that.

Crazy warm weather and tilling

The temps have been in the 70s and 80s for the majority of the last two weeks. It's been crazy, unseasonable, awesome weather for gardening! A week ago I planted the carrot, beet and pea seeds in the garden in a nice lovely rain. They are sprouting nicely now.

Over the weekend I bought myself something to make gardening life easier... a tiller! I've been turning the soil by hand all these years with a shovel and a maddox (a form of pick axe). When I had two more raised beds added to the garden last year (making a total of 5 raised beds not counting the herb bed) my back starting singing.... so this year I got a two cylinder Craftsman mini-tiller... I can't believe I've gone all these years without it!!! I can till up a bed in a half hour now without breaking a sweat other than what the temps are causing.

Now that I have beds tilled, I planted some more this weekend using starter plants from my favorite local nursery since I didn't have time to get these going myself:
- Celery
- Broccoli
- Kohlrabi (something new to try)
- Brussel Sprouts (another new attempt)

I also seeded some Romaine lettuce and Kale.

For now I'm sticking with the cold weather crops, I have a sneaky suspicion that this unseasonably warm weather is going to break at some point in April. So for now I'm keeping my fair weather sprouts in the house in seed trays and sticking to the reliable cold crops outdoors.

Seed trays

I've decided that I will no longer use the plastic domes that come with the seed trays. I think that is the reason my seedlings get "leggy". I remember (decades ago) when my grandfather started seeds.  He just used egg crates in the sun porch. Just good old fashioned direct sunlight, and he grew the best garden... in his senior years he cut down to just two acres, lol!

I pulled the plastic cover off the seedlings this week and those that are coming up now are looking way better than the first sprouts which are leggy, this includes my tomatoes which are the worst. I've seeded a new bunch of tomatoes, just in case. I'm hoping everything else works out ok.

Planting seeds in the rain

Tonight I followed the advice of the almanac.com planting calendar for my area and planted seeds... in the rain no less. I find that planting in the rain, a light rain not a downpour, is excellent for seeds planting!

In the new bed that is part shade I planted,
- Frosty Peas (Earl May seeds) - and this year I used an inoculate for the first time. We'll see if it helps because I've never had much luck with peas.
- Early Wonder beets (Earl May seeds) - I've planted these before with good luck
- and my favorite, Little Finger Carrots (Earl May seeds) - which I plant every year with good results every time.... yummy!

My seed trays are doing well although I realized late that I should've taken the plastic cover off sooner. My tomatoes are leggy, I hope they recover ok. I think I'll plant a few more tomato seeds just in case.

I think my asparagus is taunting me

I planted asparagus roots last year, starting from roots to save a year from the "establishment" cycle. This year the asparagus are looking mighty luscious! If I didn't know better, I'd think they're taunting me.

Unfortunately though, I have to wait at least another year before I can slice off a few spears.

For now my notes are:
- didn't cut last season's stalks until this past weekend. It seemed to work really well. The spears were tiny and after cutting they shot up 4 inches in two days. Crazy!!
- I didn't cut the old stalks down low, left a good 3 inches.
- from what I read I may not get away with not trimming every year. Something about a "rust". I may have just been lucky since this was such a mild winter and so early in the development cycle
- also from what I've read, I really need to work on keeping those asparagus ferns contained upright, they can spread from seed. Last year they were leaning over the lawn, the last thing I need is asparagus in the lawn.... I already have peppermint trying to take over the lawn.

Garden log and Seed plantings

Up until last summer I kept a separate journal on my computer of my gardening notes, just quick nothing fancy notes. Well that software program crapped out last year and I wasn't able to access my notes. I just figured out how to find and read the notes after digging in the program files and was able to get them out as text. Going forward, I've resolved to keep these notes on my blog where I don't have to worry about this again.

So, that said....

I started my seed trays this week. The weather has been fabulous, in the 80s and because of the warmth I feel so behind on my gardening tasks... which I am, but not too behind. The seeds I started are:
- the last of the Summer Savory seeds from last year (lake valley seeds)
- the last of the American Flag Leek seeds from last year (lake valley seeds)
- sweet banana peppers from Early May
- black beauty eggplant seeds from last year (Ferry Morse heirloom)
- sweet italian basil (lake valley seeds)
- mammoth dill seeds from last year (lake valley seeds)
- triple curled parsley seeds from last year (Burpee organic from Menards)
- cilantro seeds (Earl May)
- catsup roma tomatoes (Earl May)
- dwarf marigold seeds from last year (Earl May)
- and St Johns Fire Salvia seeds (lake valley seeds) that J insisted on planting because he wants to take photos of them

I also need to get the beds turned and get on top of planting these seeds I picked up, I'm always late getting these in (usually mid April) and they are always stunted or slow:
- dwarf dates blue kale - curled scotch sees from last year (Early May)
- little finger carrots (Earl May)
- early wonder beets (Earl May)
- frost peas (Earl may)

Goodbye Tomatillo's

In the last week I've been noticing that the tomatillo plants are dropping leaves. They have been turning yellow and dropping fast. I think the change in the weather for the cooler has not been favorable to them. So, on Tuesday I decided that was it. I tore them out...

What a jungle! It took me over and hour and a half to pick the fruit and tear out the plants. The vines, yes, vines... were intermingled with my overgrown patty pan squash and I had to be delicate so that I could try and save the patty pans.

When I researched growing tomatillo's for the first time this past winter, all indications said they would be about 4ft and bushy.... nope!! If they'd grown straight up I'm sure they would've been 8ft, and definitely leggy! I suppose it could've been the environment this year. Lots of water and extreme heat, and boys do they love the heat!

All in all, I now have a huge stock pot full of tomatillos to make salsa verde this weekend for canning. I'll be making small batches as I'm tweaking the Ball canning recipe, it's not quite the right flavor but close. I'll try to remember to share later...

Oh, and I found a bucket of patty pan's hidden in the process...