Spearmint, peppermint and some replacement rosemary are all that’s left in—right outside—the Extended Milkhouse. Most of the spring seedlings are in the ground (a few are still in the greenhouse), and it’s time to transform the Milkhouse set-up from seed starting to overnight harvest storage and a place to take a break from extreme weather.
rosemary
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…
Rosemary cloned
The little gamble on propagating rosemary from frail cuttings paid off at 20%. Out of about 40 starts, eight took root, this without any sort of rooting compound. I put them in 3″ peat pots yesterday. They’re headed for the summer herb garden.
Rosemary revival
A little experiment in vegetative propagation—replicating rosemary from tiny, stressed cuttings. Most of the potted rosemary taken up from the herb garden last season got toasted after too many -20°C nights in the unheated greenhouse (a bit of a random how-cold-can-they-go experiment). These tiny cuttings came from one that was taken indoors earlier. They’re kinda frail and stretched from relatively low light (etiolated is the typically uncommon technical term). They’ve already been three days in the tray, let’s see how they do. (Fast forward to…results!)
Still alive? Not quite well
Rosemary, potted in the Autumn from the herb beds, has taken a bit of beating and probably not survived. It’s weathered several intensely cold nights already, out here in the unheated greenhouse, and I kinda wanted to see if they could make it through the winter. What a difference last night made, not colder than any others, it’s probably the night after night that got ’em. Well, inside they go to see if there’ll be any miraculous recoveries.
Fuller share
By mid-August, the CSA shares are nearing their peak. Here we have eggplant, carrots (including a new purple addition, Purple Haze), onions, beets, potatoes, yellow beans, summer squash, tomatoes, rosemary, plus salad mix out of sight. Still waiting on melons, winter squash, main season broccoli, fall cauliflower. And there’s more! :)