Spring is slow in coming this year. I hope this is winter’s last hurrah. Predictions are for a warming trend with temperatures near 80° and sunny for next weekend. Despite the cold wet weather, the peas are at about 1-1/2 inches and the radishes are slowly popping up. The mint is coming back to life, I picked and used my first batch of chives and the lawn is full of striped squill.
I am hoping to get greens in by the end of the week. Thursday looks nice. I’ll make sure I have lettuce and spinach plants before then. Time to get more specific in my planning.
Looking back at last year’s posts the first planting was on April 22, so I’m about at the same place as last year. I am a month ahead with the radishes and peas.
Woke up to a dusting of snow this morning. At least we have some sun today. It’s been cold and rainy for the past couple of weeks. It’s way too wet to plant or even walk through the garden. The temperatures will be in the 50s next week, but other than Sunday, there is rain in the forecast every day. No gardening for a while.
Thank God I got the peas and radishes in when I did. It’s probably been too cold for them to germinate, though. The warmer temps this week might get them going.
The weather finally warmed up! It was about 66° this afternoon and the soil in the bed where the peas grow, (we know a field…in summer peas grow there) I hear Orson Welles’s voice echoing across the garden, but I digress.
The soil was a little wet, but quite workable as this bed has a lot of sand in the soil. The planting is Burpee Oregon Sugar Pod II, hope they are better than the Alaskan Peas I bought from Terroir last year. I planted the full length of the trellis.
In the west end of the front part of the bed, I planted two rows of Easter Egg Radishes. I’ll plant more in April. I bought the peas on Amazon and got a bag of 300. I just didn’t feel like driving to Home Depot for a package of seeds.
This is a month earlier than I planted peas last year, due to bad weather last year and good weather this year.
The far west raised bed where I will plant lettuce and carrots was still too wet to plant. I might have to wait a week or so depending on the weather.
Part of my video ministry at St. Anne’s involves live-streaming funerals when requested. This was much appreciated by families who had overseas friends and relatives and especially when personal attendance was not possible due to Covid restrictions or concerns.
It has been a humbling experience to hear of the wonderful, loving lives led by people I only knew from a distance. Today I live-streamed a funeral for Earl Billman, someone, that I had gotten to know during my years at St. Anne’s. Earl was an usher among other things and he always had time for a friendly hello and conversation after mass. Earl was a gentleman, gardener extraordinaire, and beekeeper.
This poem was printed on the back of the program for his funeral mass. I thought it was worth keeping and publishing. I’ll be thinking fondly of Earl as I go about my gardening chores this spring.
Making A Garden
Man plows and plants and digs and weeds; He works with hoe and spade; God sends the sun and rain and air, And thus a garden’s made.
He must be proud who tills the soil And turns the heavy sod: How wonderful a thing to be In partnership with God.
The days are getting longer and the holiday chaos is winding down so it is time to start thinking Spring! I placed my seed order today with Terroir Seeds in Arizona. Here’s the list:
Slow Bolting Cilantro Wild Italian Arugula Pak Choi Lazy Housewife Pole Beans Zappallo de Tronco Squash Crystal Apple Cucumber True Lemon Cucumber Easter Egg Radishes Clemson Spineless 80 Okra Red Burgundy Okra
The Zappallo de Tronco Squash is a new one for me. It can be used as summer squash or a short storage winter squash. It is supposed to be very flavorful and resistant to squash bugs. I also ordered Okra since I couldn’t find plants last year. The slow bolting cilantro needs partial shade, so maybe I’ll grow it in pots.
I also went on Etsy and ordered: Peruvian Black Mint Mashed Potato Squash.
I’ll buy the snow peas seeds locally since the variety from Terroir was not good.
Some early thoughts on the layout – I’ll work sand and compost into the front of the bed where the peas and beans are and see if I can grow a decent radish crop. I am planning to plant the okra in front of the back fence, as it can be an ornamental hedge also. Maybe I’ll add more raised beds there. I need to maybe put the eggplant in the second bed so that it is likely to get more water. I have room along the barn for a row of something, maybe bell peppers? I’ll rotate the Zucchini in front of the Roma tomatoes, and plant the Zappallo in the north end of the bed next to the firepit. I’ll have celery root in that bed also.
Overhead of the fall garden after spreading peat moss and mushroom compost and rototilling it in.
It was almost 60° today. I put down peat moss and mushroom compost a week or so ago and rototilled it in. Most of the cleanup is done. I’ll finish in the next couple of days. I am hoping that this drone shot will be helpful in planning the garden next spring.
We made good use of the herbs over Thanksgiving, using lots of Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary, We didn’t use the thyme. (Sorry Art and Paul) It is a joy to walk out in the early winter and still have fresh herbs. Benedicamus Domino!
I pulled up most of the garden the past week. I froze some bags of Poblano, Hungarian and sweet peppers. Tomato cages and stakes are put away. But, there still are a few more things out there. The temperature is going down to 26° tonight, so I thought it a good idea to harvest the celery root. I got one nice large root and a bunch of small ones. I’ll plant it again next year, but I need to give it more room. It doesn’t seem to need much care, just space.
Celery root or Celeriac harvest.
Also, as I was looking at the parsley, I found some “not parsley.” It’s either celery or celeriac that got mixed up with the parsley at Goebbert’s. So I harvested it, also. The stalks are very flavorful if it is celeriac and it will be well-cooked since it is going into the Thanksgiving stuffing. Should be amazing.
Celery or celeriac stalks. Not sure which, but it is going into the stuffing!
There is a frost coming tonight and we’ll have frosts and freezes for the next 5 days, so today is the day to pull up the garden. I harvested all of the remaining peppers, tomatillos, beets, red onions, and a few odds and ends.
Final major harvest of the year.
I left the Celery root in as that is supposed to improve in flavor after frosts. There is still some kale and swiss chard. Of course, there are a lot of herbs. There is also a lot of mint, but I don’t remember how that handles frost. I’ll find out soon. I should probably freeze some of that for “weed water” and tea.
There are lots of green tomatoes, and green cherry tomatoes, but there is nothing I can do with them.
The mint garden has really done well. The cucumbers are done for the year, though.
We’ve had about 4 inches of rain the past week, but temperatures have remained warm. Fall is late this year. Usually, we are at peak color by now, but the trees are just starting to turn.
Most of the heirloom tomatoes are done, but the Early Girl II and the Champions still have a bit of life left. They probably would have done much better if I had watered them a lot more. I will probably cut back on heirlooms a bit next year and plant a few more hybrids.
There are still tomatillos coming. I gave most of them to RT and one bunch to Fr. Rodolfo, I just haven’t had time to use them.
Cucumbers are done. The lemon ones did poorly. They produced nice plants with lots of blossoms, but little fruit ripened. I got them in about a month late, which was likely the problem. We had a good crop of zucchini. The first two hills are dead, but the one I planted later is still green.
Cherry tomatoes by the deck and in the container garden are still producing. They benefitted greatly from the liquid fertilizer and adequate watering.
Cherry tomatoes are still doing well. I think the watering and fertilizing made all of the difference. The potted patio tomato is still doing very well.
Peppers are all still doing well and I need to freeze some as most are turning red.
I still have beets to be pulled and the celery root looks like it will have some nice usable roots. I think it will need more room next year. The parsley that I planted late is really nice, I think I might freeze some. It’s probably time to start using the kale and swiss chard, too.
Looking from mid-garden toward the house. Everything is starting to wind down.The mint is spreading at an alarming rate. I’ve been too busy to use much of it though.
I am extremely happy with the way the mint garden turned out, even though I didn’t use much of the mint. I am hoping that there will still be time to do some taste testing.
