It’s right in the middle of the spring garden rush, for sure. but we’re in that little lull of sorts between direct seeding and transplanting the hardy and cool-soil-germinating crops (brassicas, peas, carrots, lettuce, etc) and waiting on temperature to transplant the more tender guys (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucurbits). This year, for the last three weeks or so, we’ve been cooler by a few degrees than recent Mays, both days and nights, which slows things down a bit more, as I don’t see an advantage in planting out some of the tender stuff early by a week or two, since the extra growth probably wouldn’t add up to much. Sooo, there’s more time now—a longer lull—to concentrate on the kinda B-iist crops (I don’t like putting it that way, but for practical purposes, well, some ARE more important to the overall market garden than others…). That means the herbs and flowers are getting great extra attention: earlier planting, dividing established growths of sage, thyme, oregano, much needed weeding… Today, I did the parsley. There are several varieties, I couldn’t resist seeing how they’d compare. For curly: Krausa Market, Green Pearl, Green River, Green Forest. For flat-leaf: Plain Italian and Hilmar. At the top left of the pic, some chives, up and thriving from last year’s planting, and you can see the well-established grass in the path that is being meticulously forked and pulled, drawing out the runners by hand, sifting with fingers to leave all the top soil. This is what I think of as really hardcore, basic gardening: crawling around, hands-in-the-dirt work, where you’re literally attending to each plant. It’s incredibly relaxing, soothing, really, so much…fun, alone or with others. Of course, this particular approach doesn’t scale up too well! Tiny farming comes in so many shades, degrees, intensities… It’s great! :)
