I made a run to Goebbert’s and bought my large patio tomato plant and jalapeno plants for the container garden.. I also got a 10-inch pot of basil, curly parsley, and pineapple mint. I unloaded that load and headed off to Countryside.They have moved the vegetables to the back greenhouses, so it’s a little more difficult with the big carts on the loose gravel. I bought two large Early Girl II tomatoes for the garden and three varieties of cherry tomatoes for the containers.
They didn’t have the large plants in the varieties I wanted so I settled on about 18″ plants. I got a couple Serrano pepper plants also. I bought some Bergamot mint, okra, and Spanish tarragon as well. It is like the Mexican tarragon I got last year but is upright instead of creeping.
I found nice, reasonably priced baskets at Home Depot. I bought two for the front, two for the back, and two smaller ones to go on the hooks in the yard.
I went to Countryside after that and got two large cherry tomato plants, rosemary, and prostrate rosemary, a new creeping variety. I also got bunching onions and curly parsley.
I went to Goebbert’s on Tuesday after my filming at St. Anne. There were only a couple of tables of spring vegetables, but mostly what I needed. They didn’t have Red Romaine yet, nor spinach, but I bought a flat containing regular Romaine, leaf lettuce, broccoli, and beets.
The weather was still iffy, but I got everything planted today after I finished my session with Lee. It’s still quite wet. I’m glad I tilled and got the soil amendments into the garden last fall. The timing is almost identical to last year. I need to get some arugla and pak choi seeds in next week after the soil dries out some more.
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.
