Frustration

It describes last weekend. Nothing says "let's get those plants in the ground" like such hot weather. It seems a shame to let them sit in the basement (not to mention that they are way too big). But April is still too early.

I've mentioned this to a few people, and heard that the normal planting time is May 1, May 8, Mother's Day, and May 15. Not exactly agreement (although there is an early May theme going on.) But then I found this which is pretty much official. Assuming I am in Central Maryland (given the shape of the state, does that even make sense?), May 1 seems just fine for tomatoes and squash. Cucmbers, watermelon, and peppers will have to wait.

Looks like I might get started next weekend. The tomatoes will certainly be happier in the ground.

Important Update on Garden Decorations

Certain parties have insisted that I post a picture of the following item so they can see it. It is an old lampstand (made of cast iron) that I got in grad school. The electrical part broke and couldn't be repaired long ago. So I took off the socket and cord, and painted it a nice, bright yellow. It now holds a small sundial. (Provides the time without reference to the Internet.)

Every garden needs junk like this, after all. But no gnomes, please.

An Interesting Year

I'm going to find out which daughter is my favorite!

Plant problems

My plants were going along very well...but now I've lost a couple of the cucumbers. Since those were the main reason that I wanted to start plants from seeds this year, this is frustrating. I'm starting a new set of cucumber plants since they should have enough time to at least get started.

Meanwhile, the tomatoes are too big! They were already big enough to plant last week, and I won't be able to put them out for another few weeks.

Today I replanted a couple in quart pots. I got the quart pots because I bought a couple of perennials for the hummingbird garden on the front deck, and planted them today. Otherwise, I'm just going to have to hope that the plants don't get too big for 3" pots.

Meanwhile, outside...

I've continued the weeding, and I now have three rows ready for planting. Which won't be in another month, so I guess I'll still be doing more work. But I've got the weeds up (mostly) and I put in compost in the spots where I am going to be putting in plants.

The row with only two white indicators is for melons.



I also put some attention into the raspberries this year. Normally, I just let them grow, but they have been rather sparse where I originally planted them. However, they did somehow jump (or go under) the barrier I put up, and a number of small raspberry plants were growing under the blueberries. Last year I tolerated this, but today I tried transplanting the very small (about 2" tall) plants into bare spots in official raspberry plot. Don't know how well this will work.

Oh yes, the blueberries are starting to show the blossoms. And the onions are starting to show up.

One thing is missing. Two years ago I planted a dill plant. It seeded, and last year I had lots of dill growing all over the south end of the garden. This year--nothing. I may have to buy another dill plant in May because I did like having the fresh dill.

Under the Grow Light

This is a funny time of year. It's definitely spring, with buds and new growth starting to show up. But you can't plant anything yet, at least, nothing that might be damaged by frost. I've been slowly preparing the garden for the plants which are still under the grow light.

First, here's the grow light. Tomatoes on the right (mostly), squash and cucumber on the left.


Here's a couple of close-ups. Can you tell I am proud of the fact that these plants are actually growing? Not that I had much to do with it, since seeds are designed to do this.




Zucchini, cucumber, and some more tomatoes:

Garden Prep I

So I took advantage of a nice Sunday to start preparing the ground. Where did all those weeds come from already? I used a garden weasel to till the soil.

An old hoe came in handy to pull up some of the weeds. As did an old trick I learned in the Boy Scouts---if a tool head is loose on its wooden handle, soak it in water for a while. The wood will swell up, and the head will become fixed, at least until it dries out again. Since we found the hoe under the several feet of mulch that originally covered the garden, it is not exactly new. In fact, it is pretty rusty. I suppose I should get a new one. But it seems so satisfying to keep using an old tool.

I got about half the garden weeded. I also started digging up the areas where I intend to put plants and filling the holes with compost (a mixture of mine and leafgro which I purchased from Rockville High School, which is part of my plan to gradually improve the soil.

This is a lot more than I have done in the past. My main strategy for cleaning up in the past involved Roundup, which worked pretty well as long as there was a warm day before I wanted to put in the plants. Roundup seems pretty benign, but I am trying to reduce chemicals this year.

A few onion shoots are starting to peak up. I stepped in the onion row by accident, of course. Nothing seems damaged.

Uh Oh

I see a couple of holes around where I planted the onions. Something has been digging there, and that cannot be good.

Although I see to remember seeing similar holes last fall after I planted the garlic. I was convinced that I'd lost the crop, but they all sprouted (all but one). And it's been a few days without any more holes appearing. Can I hope no critters are after me?

Other news: more peppers and tomato plants coming up. I planted the squash and cucumber seeds last weekend. Nothing showing up yet.