Action!

The gardening season is here, you have planned, prepared and now you get to actually plant!

Early this morning, my favorite time of day, I set out all of the alliums. These include: Patterson onion (a nice storing onion and also good fresh), Red Wing (yes, we can grow red onions), shallots (Ambition). The fall planted garlic is up and looking ever so fabulous. You may recall that I questioned its viability after it came out from under mulch looking grim.

The onions and shallots were all started from seed the end of February under lights in the guest bedroom. They were moved to the greenhouse the first of April, repotted into individual cells (four packs) and left to gain some heft which they accomplished with very little effort on my part. They look lovely.

But then things got tricky. I have an uncooperative knee. Enter our granddaughter Cecilia and her friend Leah Dunn to the rescue. They showed up about 10:30 and planted every single brassica start, of which there are many because that’s what we eat (keep that in mind: plant what you eat). Broccoli, three kinds of cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, an artichoke. Then they planted the carrots, again, there are a million carrots out there. Bolero is the variety of choice. It is excellent fresh and stores like a champion. I have always planted carrot seed one at a time because I don’t like to thin them. Now with the pelleted seed that task is made easy, nice and tidy.

Ideally we would be planting our garden on an overcast day, but we have nothing but bright sunshine for the foreseeable future. Go figure. We watered in everything, even adding a solution of fish emulsion, sprinkled a very little Sluggo to thwart the cutworms, covered everything with floating row cover and wished it all well. Phew!

Not done: greens need to go in and beets, and peas and potatoes and and and… The potatoes are cut into quarters and drying in the greenhouse, they’ll go into the ground in a couple of days. It takes forever for potatoes to show signs of life. Royal Burgundy bush beans are soaking. Once they soften up I’ll plant them into four packs. I’m never in a hurry to get the starts into the ground, they truly hate to be cold, but once they get going all will be well. There are four of these in the greenhouse and are almost in bloom so bean season goes on and on around here.

For whatever reason peas take too long to mature. You wouldn’t think so, you would think ‘ah, peas, how easy, they love cool temperatures, I’ll just pop a few seeds in and feast on them sooner rather than later’. Nope, not for me. So, I’ve been giving them a start. I put four to six seeds in a little pot and let them germinate and then I set out little pea starts and THEN I get peas sooner rather than later. And this year I have two different kinds: always and forever Sugar Ann snap pea, and this year a new one King Tut. We’ll see.

Speaking of the greenhouse, we are eating lettuce (Skyphos) and radishes daily. Our salads include the radish tops and a handful of sorrel that is perennial therefore living outdoors. Hurray for a fresh salad. The tomatoes are in bloom and that brings me to the eternal question: are you shaking your plants to fertilize them so you actually have tomatoes? That’s all you need to do: shake the plant, gently. No electric toothbrushes, no paint brush going from bloom to bloom, JUST SHAKE THE PLANT.

There is so much going on this time of year. Take the time to stake your lovelies. There is nothing worse than a delphinium in full bloom wrought asunder by wind and rain, laying in the dirt ~ ruined. Stake.

I take cuttings from the red twigged dogwoods to make stakes for most of the perennials. This has been most successful with the columbine, with everything actually. It looks good, does the job and the cuttings are just there for you. If you don’t have any shrubs of your own take a few from the alders that are everywhere. Really, this works, try it.