Leaf-out

It seemed this morning as I was driving my daughters to school that the trees have suddenly burst into full leaf. After a cold and windy weekend which included some snow, it was striking to drive down the tree-lined streets of our village and observe sunlight breaking through the thick canopy of leaves.

The weather this weekend forced us to keep plants inside and to time-share the available fluorescent light. The seedlings are still very small and could use some warmth to kick start their growth before planting out in a couple of weeks. I asked my wife to remind me in the future not to early start anything but flowers, tomatoes, peppers, basil and brassicas. I have a couple trays of lettuce and chard that were started indoors and the plants outside in the garden are already about the same size.

Last week, we transplanted peppers (19 hot, 13 sweet), tomatoes (13 cherry sun) and five basil from vermiculite to small containers of potting soil. I have observed that the tomatoes that were transplanted earlier into pots turned a bit yellow and have not been growing well. I think that this may be due to using my version of Mel's mix (not enough nutrient rich humus and perhaps too much acidity from the peat) instead of a good potting soil and also to the low temperature of the room in which they are growing.

This weekend, I spent some time cleaning and weeding the garden beds and transplanting lettuce and chard where more than one seed germinated.

Tulips faded this weekend.