My Whopper strawberries, a super good deal from Gurney, came on Saturday so we got up early on Sunday to go over to the farm and get them planted. It was threatening rain so I had to hurry but I got them planted before the heavy rain came. Perfect timing!
SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2015
Until June we can only do weekend gardening because of babysitting. That always puts me behind the eight ball for getting things done, especially weeding. But we have been lucky with the weather. When it rains it seems to have been coming on days we cannot work in the garden anyway, so that is very helpful.
Today started out very overcast, cool and breezy with a hint of mist in the air. I had some chores to do at home in the morning but we were still able to get to the farm by 9:00 am.
The first thing I did was water the tomatoes in the greenhouse and the three flats sitting outside. The air is really drying them out quickly. We will plant approximately 30-40 plants and sell the remaining ones. There are approximately 100 plants. Any that don't sell usually get planted somewhere.
David had a wheelbarrow full of compost so we added that to the in ground bed inside the greenhouse and freshened up the soil in an Earth Box. An Earth Box is basically a self watering planter box and they work great for growing early cucumbers in the greenhouse. I planted seven seeds because it was the rest of the package. Probably too many but possibly some will not germinate. The seeds I planted were Socrates, a greenhouse variety that do not need bees to pollinate them. I had started five plants earlier and planted them in the greenhouse at my house but it was still too cold and they all died.
David took the tractor cart and got another load of compost and I used some of it when I planted my beans. Provider beans are an early market bean because they can tolerate the cold soil more than most. Not my favorite bean but when they are the first of the season they taste pretty darn good! I also planted some Jade II, my favorite bean! They are fussy to germinate though so I am keeping my fingers crossed the soil was warm enough. I'm pretty sure it is but to be on the safe side, yesterday I planted 64 paper pots with them. I planted a few bush wax beans and a few lima beans. I've not planted lima beans before and it won't be enough to take to market but I wanted to try them. I also planted the back wall of the greenhouse (where the inground bed is) with a climbing French yellow bean.
Puttering around pulling a few weeds here and there and planted some Bells of Ireland because the seeds I tried to start inside didn't germinate. Well, I got one. And nasturtiums planted also. Then I planted the glads I had to lift last fall when we plowed up the row they were in. I'll wait two weeks to plant the new ones I bought to try and stretch out the harvest. I had a couple handfuls of tiny bulbs and planted them in a nursery area bed. I just throw them in the ground and cover, no setting them in to make sure they are upright because they are so tiny. After they grow a bit larger they will get moved and then I'll make sure I plant them upright.
David picked up lunch at Wendy's today because when I went to make the chicken salad this morning I found I had left the mayonnaise out since yesterday afternoon. I am super fussy about mayo and it got pitched. Not worth taking a chance on getting sick from it.
After lunch I just puttered around, cleaning up the area under the deck, putting in some edging on a bed next to it that is overrun with weeds. Ira keeps encroaching on the bed when mowing so I picked up the edging when my neighbor was tossing it. The ground was wet enough that it was easy with the edging tool to put it in. I swear I will redo that bed this year! It's the only bed with partial shade so I can put pretty much anything there as long as the shade plants are towards the back.
David was mowing the paths in the garden so I decided to go ahead and try and weed the onion row. I lost a lot of onions because of the cold nights, except the Red Creole ones seem to do better. Next year I will cover them after I plant them and see if that helps. I still have quite a few as I think I planted over 500. Onions and garlic should be two of the easiest cash crops is all goes well.
We finished up around 6 pm and I wasn't even exhausted! It was a good, satisfying day.
We haven't been able to make it to the garden since last Sunday but today was nice enough to finish planting the lettuce and a few other seedlings such as chard and cilantro. I also planted my Dinosaur Kale seedlings, straight from vermiculite with no hardening off so I'm asking for trouble there but I did it anyway. We'll see what happens. Low tonight 53 so hopefully they will survive.
David weeded more strawberries and when I finished planting I helped by starting to weed the oldest row of strawberries that were lost in all the weeds. I should be able to finish it tomorrow, then I'll weed the onion row. I think we probably lost a lot of them from the cold nights.
There were a few strawberry blossoms.
I think the daffodil row is at full peak so they will start to fade.
It looks like the last few nights of really cold are finished for a bit so I wanted to get my lettuce planted in the garden. Also, it's less than four weeks until our first market day and I'm stressing about whether or not we'll even have anything to sell. Some of the lettuce seedlings were large enough that I'm pretty sure we will at least be able to have a little bit. And hopefully some radishes.
First I had to bring all the trays of lettuce out from the greenhouse to the garden. The garden is slightly downhill from the greenhouse so bringing them out isn't too bad but I did have to make three or four trips, even with my big garden cart.
Notice all the paper pots? Many thanks to my DH for rolling them for me! I love using paper pots because I just drop the entire plant into the hole, just making sure all the newspaper is beneath the surface so it doesn't wick the moisture away.
I think I went a little overboard this year. I added several new varieties of lettuce and even planted some crisp head lettuce. I will have one full row of leaf lettuce and another row of mixed crisp head and butter head. And probably another partial row of mixed varieties/types. We really do sell a lot of lettuce at market so I hope we will again this year or we'll be eating salads three times a day!
The rest of the lettuce will have to wait until next weekend to get planted now. I had really wanted to get it in the ground because we are supposed to have three days of rain now.
Tomorrow if it doesn't rain we are getting a load of manure from a friend of my son. They live nearby which is really nice since we used to drive over an hour to get manure just so someone can load it for us. We're just too old to be handling that. It's hard enough scooping it off the trailer into the pile. Thank goodness they have a front end loader to keep it turned!
Beginning of March and I am already behind on my garden for market!
I actually got my peas planted on Saturday, Feb. 28, the earliest I have ever gotten them planted. I did a double 50' row. I wasn't really planning on selling peas at market because they are way too labor intensive, but with that many planted, and if they all come up, I may be selling some peas.
I also got the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage planted in the garden on Saturday too. The weather warmed up with no freezing nights and I was starting to worry about holding them in pots too long, so I was very happy to plant them out. I got two 50', 3 1/2' wide rows of them. I ran out of time for planting the lettuce so hopefully I can get that planted this weekend.
And, we are supposed to have more freezing nights starting Thursday so I have to get the row cover on them. I usually put it on right away, but I ran out of time on Saturday. I wanted to do it Sunday but I was so tired I slept until almost 9 am and then I planted a few peas at my house and then had to go over and watch Miranda, my granddaughter so the row covers still haven't gotten on. I ordered two 500' rolls of a heavier row cover and I am hoping it will come by Thursday, otherwise I will be piecing the old, tattered row cover.
Root crops should have already been in but they're not. Hoping to get them planted this weekend too. With 50 to 60 days maturity, and that's pushing it, I won't have beets, turnips or carrots until the first of May at least. Not much I can do about it. Since the first summer market starts on April 5, I'll keep my fingers crossed I have lettuce and radishes to sell. Not sure I'll even have any early flowers this year since we plowed under a great deal of my flower garden because of all the grass.
