The frost warning for last night didn’t come to anything, but it’s on again for tonight. Yesterday, we covered about 500 tomatoes, some of the peppers, eggplant, and beans, and even the basil. I don’t really think there’ll be a deadly hard frost, so this is only partial insurance. Covering half the field seemed a little much. Here, the tomatoes are somewhat safer than if they were exposed, but the delicate tops are taking a beating from the cover, and if it does freeze up, frozen dew on the row cover fabric will toast the parts of the plants directly in contact. It’s a rough little bit of weather insurance. It’ll be great to have it over tomorrow. Cross fingers!
frost
Sunflowers come up quick!
Sunflower is my new favorite flower…because it comes up quick. These Claret seedlings, along with Sunrich Orange and the Go Bananas mix, all poked up after barely three days, with even germination down the rows. Flowers this year are lower priority than the veggies, so they got in a little later than they could’ve. Yesterday, I showed my production list to a flower gardener, who nodded as she read, said “oh, cosmos” in what I took to be an approving tone, and finally commented, “well, you may be a little LATE for some” (my emphasis on LATE). She was only referring to the longest possible season for each, but it made me realize what a dread concept LATE has been all along, only usually it’s just in my own head. You’re constantly trying to stay on top of seeding and transplant timing, hoping for early last frost and late first frost, attempting to squeeze in one more planting, and always wondering if this or that will be…TOO LATE. In fact, it always works out… What you learn is, either way, no worries!
Herbs…
Picked up some herb seedlings from local growers at the farmers’ market yesterday. From the bottom left: peppermint, lovage, spearmint, rosemary (started here from cuttings), and tarragon (peeking in from the corner). I generally grow everything possible from seed, so the ones from the market are a bit of an instant treat. I’ll buy a couple of seedlings and multiply them myself to production quantities, which in this case means next year, at least, for the lovage and tarragon. Last frost date was May 18, the 15-day forecast is well above zero C, so it’s now time to get all of the seedlings in. It’s also time to direct seed the flowers. Lots to do…
Evening harvest
In the greenhouse, harvesting in the first and last couple of hours of the day is the only way to ensure tasty salad greens. Daytime harvest is near futile, as the leaves go limp and require serious rehydration. In the chilly evening weather, plants perk up, and it’s all right as rain! Here, cutting greens in the evening before market means clearing the arugula that bolted during the week and rapidly buried the lettuce. Out of arugula chaos comes delicious, garden-fresh salad mix! (On the tomato front, yesterday’s field transplants did well, only a few leaf burns where they touched the cover, this despite quite a hard frost. That’s good.)
Tomatoes go in
The first of the tender, warm season transplants—tomatoes—hit the field today! About 175 seedlings went in: Juliet, Striped German, Stupice, Emerald Evergreen, Mule Team, Yellow Stuffer. On the transplant team: Conall, Sherry and, new to the season’s crew, Jo. Compared to doing transplants alone or with one other person (my experience so far), this was quite the operation. Teamwork!
Juggling the weather and part-timer scheduling, I took a bit of a risk transplanting today, with patchy frost forecast for tonight. Still, the plants have been through highs and lows in the greenhouse, row cover will help, and tomatoes have…never let me down. I’ll be up at dawn to see how it went. Everything’s a gamble!
More hands on deck
Conall, the all-new organic grower, is back after being unexpectedly called away two and a half weeks ago. That happened after we’d worked together for seven days straight. For me, making the transition from essentially solo tiny farming to having regular help was that quick. Having everything bouncing around in your head, with little need to explain it, is a luxury and efficiency of sorts. On the other hand, if you have people who you can sync with, sharing the gardening in an ongoing way seems like even more fun. And you can grow MORE STUFF with LESS WEEDS!! :) It’s a really welcome return. FREAK FROST: Three nights ago, according to the min/max thermometer, the temperature bottomed at a little below 0°C (and there was no reported cold snap or hard killing frost), but some of the brassicas (Brussels sprouts—see the whitish spots on the leaves on the right of the pic, bok choi, cauliflower) and two out of three varieties of peas got fairly toasted, burnt by the cold. Many of the pea leaves were totally killed off. I only noticed the extent of the brassica damage when we took off the row cover today. This is something I’ve never seen, and Bob, with 40 years of farming, hadn’t either, especially with peas, which can grow in the snow. The additionally odd thing is that some varieties (one of the peas, broccoli) weren’t affected at all. These are all plants that can normally take an overnight freezing and bounce back no problem—temperatures around zero should be nothing. Weird. My random theory: a very rapid temperature drop, many degrees in a few minutes, that didn’t give the plants enough time to adjust…? Anyhow, everything’s recovering just fine! The crazy weather effects continue…
Greenhouse filling up
The seedling side of the greenhouse is already almost full. All of the tomatoes, eggplant and peppers in 3″pots (around 700) are out there, which is only almost a quarter of everything that’s going. I’m gonna have to make some space! There are many things to do. Last frost date is approaching and the long-range weather forecast, not worth a lot but still worth looking at, predicts temperatures steadily rising—planting out to the field will likely happen “on schedule” around the 20th. The farmers’ market is also starting, and I need to do some carpentry to finish up the new stand. Two-thirds of the potatoes still have to go in. There’s a whole list of seedlings that need to be started indoors. There are the flowers and herbs to tend to, separate areas on their own. The grass is jumping and the paths need a first mowing now! And so on. If you’re into a little higher pressure gardening, around here, this is the time of year for you!