Dad, Andy at Chicken Thistle Farm and I have been exchanging many "I'M SO SICK OF THE RAIN" type emails, usually involving how stressed we are over not being able to get into the garden, which seedlings we're worried are rotting, etc. Earlier today I had to keep it brief but rattled off an email and Andy must've liked it ... that plus all this rain is giving him way too much free time cooped up in the house, clearly going a little stir crazy. He took exactly what I said and turned it into this really cool movie trailer..
And yes, I will be suing him for royalties!
Dear CSA customers...
Considering how wet everything is already this season, and the forecast doesn't look any better, we're already behind on things growing in the garden. I think by this time last year I was harvesting lettuce and spinach from the gardens. At this point THIS year? The lettuce and asian green seeds sprouted a couple weeks ago, but have completely halted all growth. And the spinach? NO SIGN OF IT!
Each year you get something a little different - an earlier start, a later start, a really short season of spring, summer or fall depending on temperature and precipitation, etc. Well...taking a look at the backyard THIS year, I think you'll all be getting rice.
I was reading an article commenting on how leeks tend to average about a dollar apiece when purchased at the store... and yet they're so easy to grow at home if you're just willing to give up the space for them long enough.
I learned a nifty trick for planting leeks a couple years ago. Most instructions have you planting the leek seedlings shallow, and then as they gain size you mound soil up around them to blanche the stalks, meaning shade as much as possible from sunlight so you get the more valuable white stalk and less of the tough dark green leafy parts. Only that means all spring and summer you're constantly moving soil around their bases, bringing it from somewhere else in the garden and/or worrying about damaging the plants.
With the technique I found, you "drill" a hole 1"-2" across and 8"-10" deep. You just drop the seedlings down the shaft and leave 'em. Don't fill in those holes right away! Watering, rain and wind will slowly knock soil down into the hole. And because this is happening slowly, the leek has time to set down roots and grow up upwards out of the hole. This worked great for most of my leeks the last two years.... although some of the leeks just never made it out of the hole.
So why all the pictures of worms? It seems shoving a 1x2 stake down into the soil nice and deep and then rotating it to form the shaft as you pull it out must remind the works of moles digging through the dirt to get them. You can be drilling a new hole and just a couple inches away a worm or two will shoot up out of the soil and start crawling away to safety.
If you look up worm charming or I think worm grunting online, you'll see how this is put to use.
Of the favorites the author lists, I typically grow two, including the Black Cherry you see here. These little guys are actually a wee bit bigger than your average cherry tomato, incredibly prolific, and oh so flavorful. I'd have to say they're my favorite cherry tomato.
I've also grown a variety called Chocolate Cherry, which I honestly think is the same tomato with a different name.... Perhaps a marketing thing? Either way, I know these little purpley-brown guys were getting lots of complements last year!
Since then I've given up on the in-ground veggie garden space, putting in more raised beds last fall.
And there you are this spring, coming back up after a long, hard winter, some in the raised beds where you did well last summer, and some coming up from under the straw mulch around the edges of the new raised beds.
Looking pretty.
Looking tasty.
Well here's what happens when you look that good! You were great sautéed with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and crushed red pepper. Serves you right!
Just potted up tomato and pepper seedlings in the middle. The tomatoes look especially roughed up after their first real exposure to wind and sunshine.
Some storebought stuff on the bottom that could probably go out any day now.
Now the trick is to figure out what to do with all the pepper and tomato plants. With extra protective layers of plastic plus a heat mat, will they do well in the greenhouse, even though temps are supposed to drop again?
Seeing what the extended forecast looks like, I finally felt comfortable direct seeding the peas (mostly sugar snap varieties) Wednesday afternoon. I'm thinking I can also start considering planting out seedlings for kales, chard and cabbage, plus direct seeding stuff that loves cold weather, like spinach. Is it too early for some of this stuff?
Related articles
- The Kale Question (cooksinthegarden.com)
- How to Series: Spring seed sowing part 1 - Lettuce, Spinach and Radishes (fenugreeklove.wordpress.com)
- Vegetable Seeds: When to Plant and How (plantrant.wordpress.com)
- Guide to March Gardening in the U.S. (lifehack.org)
- Seedlings (oneearthtolive.wordpress.com)
First round of peas: planted!