A day off to work in the garden

I took a day off from work today to get caught up in the garden. The sun was shining and it was warm enough for short sleeves.

I planted some garlic cloves last spring, and am just now pulling them to see what is going on underground. It looks like they have all split into numerous very small cloves. I distributed about 50 of these to other locations and left a few as they were. This is my first experience with garlic, so I will report again in August on what happens with these. I also planted chard where the earlier planting did not come up.

I cleaned up the sixth and final garden frame and planted it completely with spinach (~100) and garlic. I have had so little luck germinating spinach in the past two years, that I won't be surprised if only half of it comes up, but at the beginning of June, it will be harvested and replaced with basil and cherry tomatoes.

The asparagus and raspberry beds were cleaned up and the raspberries pruned. There are several asparagus spears beginning to show above the soil. This is only the second season since they were planted so we will only enjoy a few spears and allow the rest to grow to strengthen the roots.

The front gardens were also weeded and part of the bed prepared for oriental poppies. The peonies are about 4 inches tall. I see a flower forming on the lilac for the first time since they were planted several years ago. Woody was out again today after a ten day nap.

Freezing temperatures

Temperatures were forecast to fall into the low 20's last night. I covered as much of the garden and fruit trees as I could with available blankets and plastic. As of this morning, the buds and early leaves of the fruit trees appear to have survived. It looks like temperatures will fall within freezing range a couple more times in the next week. It will be a fair amount of work to keep the buds from freezing, the lettuce and kale should be fine under the plastic.

We haven't seen Woody since the 17th. He made a good decision to go back and sleep a while longer.

Four frames filled

Everything has been growing well in this summer-like, early spring interlude with temperatures into the 80's. We planted 32 sugar snap peas, 32 sienna peas, 48 carrots (32 Nelson and 16 Laguna) and the rest of the kale that was started inside. This means that four garden frames are completely filled. I am planning to plant spinach in the remaining frame that will eventually hold the cherry tomatoes and basil for pesto.

I discovered that something had eaten several of the small kale seedlings that were set out a week ago (most likely slugs). This reminded me that I usually place cut-off half gallon milk containers over these seedlings and that keeps the harmful creatures away until the plants are large enough to take a little munching.

The strawberries have been cleaned up and fruit trees pruned. It is a good feeling to be on top of garden tasks this year. The weather forecast shows temperatures falling into the 20's early next week. It will be interesting to see how well everything copes with the cold.

Beech seeds

We have been enjoying unusually mild days in the 70's. The lettuce is growing rapidly, but I haven't seen any of the directly planted seeds sprout yet. All of the garden frames are under plastic at night and when the daytime temperature is below 70 with cloud cover. This evening, I planted about 60 European Beech (fagus sylvatica) seeds that sprouted in the refrigerator during stratification. This is about one-quarter of the seeds that were started. I wasn't expecting to plant them before summer based on the instructions from the seed company, but everything seems to be starting early this year. I have admired hedges of beech trees at the Botanical Gardens in Niagara Falls and in Buffalo and would like to enclose the backyard with the trees that I am starting. Above is an extreme example of a beech hedge from Scotland and a more typical example.

Woody

Woody the woodchuck came out today to have a look around, scratch some grubs out of his coat and sit in the sunlight for a while.

Carrots, spinach and kale

Last night, in one garden frame, I planted nearly 100 carrots of three varieties: Short & Sweet, Nantes, and Ithaca. Also, about 30 spinach, and 16 kale. Next on my list of things to do is to finish cleaning up the strawberry bed, prune the grape vines, apples and pears; and plant peas. I would have planted the peas already, but didn't have seeds available. We are looking at temperatures in the mid to high 70's for the foreseeable future, so these plants will have a good opportunity to get established.

Strawberries and beets

Yesterday evening I planted about 30 beets in the garden and cleaned up about half of the strawberry bed. I didn't trim the runners last season, so there are a few new plants and many old leaves and runners to trim. It sure is nice having the frames all ready to go. Last year I had to move them all before I could start planting and in previous years, they were being built. Given time and foresight, I would build new garden frames in the fall so that they are ready to go as early as possible in the spring.

Daylight savings

Sunday was the first day of Daylight Savings Time. It is always a challenge to remember when it is DST and when it is "normal" time (UTC). The EU had a good idea by naming it "Summer Time". In Great Britain they use the acronym BST for "British Summer Time". Anyway, I took advantage of the longer daylight in the evening and the good weather to plant a couple of garden frames with lettuce.

In one frame, I used the traditional four plants to a square spacing all around the perimeter. In the center squares, I planted chard at four to a square. In another frame, I planted lettuce about one every 3 inches for a total of more than 150 plants. The idea is to start enough lettuce early that I will be able harvest baby greens and start eating fresh salads as early as possible. Both of these frames have been covered with plastic to protect them from frost and to encourage growth.

The next things on my list are to thin the strawberries back to four plants per square, to plant some beets and carrots and to prune the fruit trees.

Crocuses

We were happy to see the first crocuses preparing to unfurl their petals this morning. We started a tray of kale inside and soaked some pea and chard seeds. The lettuce planted 2/27 is doing well. I would plant it outside now if the weather cooperated.