So Far So Good!

Well I have been busily planting since my last post, and today took an even bigger risk and planted squash. If we get any wet cold weather, I may lose it, but it's easy enough to replant if that happens. If not I am ahead of the game.

Today was very productive. I planted summer squash, cucumbers, pumpkin, ginger, and a ton of tomatoes. I don't generally plant hybrids, but after last season's disaster with blight and blossom rot (everyone in this area struggled with tomatoes last year) followed by a sudden heat wave, I thought I would add some hybrid tomatoes to the mix, planted far enough away from my heirlooms to keep them pure.

With the hybrid tomatoes, I planted the seeds in the bare spots in my over wintered beds. These beds contain a mix of escarole, endive, onions, leeks, arugula and collards. I am hoping that the tomatoes will come up quickly enough to shade some of these winter marvels to slow bolting.

I did the same thing with the greens last Fall, and I am seeing now my planning is paying off. In one of my beds I have spinach interplanted with collards.

Now the collards are growing faster than the spinach, and providing partial shade to the spinach, which prefers cooler temps. Spinach will bolt and get bitter quickly if it's too warm.

I am also thrilled to see my onions doing so well. These guys are planted down the center of my bed, which last fall contained lettuces and mesclun mix. Now I have cabbages and turnips coming up on either side. Onions are a great companion for almost any veggie except things you want to stay sweet tasting.

My beans haven't come up yet, but it's only been a week. My peas are coming up though. I planted Alaska and sugar snap peas. The high sugar content makes these guys tolerant to frost. I will replant the same type again this summer for my Fall harvest.

Next to my peas are more collards. They look different than they did in the Fall. Last Fall they were big and lanky, with enormous leaves. This Spring they are more compact and appear almost to be heading, although this variety is non-heading, a result I suspect of the cold winter.

The taste is quite excellent. The leaves are a bit less smooth than they were in the Fall, and are a bit sturdier. My arugula did the same thing, and both I think are quite improved in taste and texture, even if the leaves are smaller. A few of the collards in this bed are bolting, which is a mixed blessing. I want the seed of these hardy little buggers, but I hate the thought of not having collards again until Fall.

One of the greatest blessings about this lifestyle is I get to work outside and watch everything that happens. I get to listen to the birds, watch the Sandhill Cranes fly north (I can't believe the numbers I've seen this year!) and I get to watch my horses and the cow do what they do. And sometimes they watch me as I bend on sit and scrape and rake and pull and plant and water and spray. It's a glorious life! I am so thankful for the opportunity God has given me to experience the joy of tending His garden.

Going out on a limb

Well, I may be wrong about an early Spring. I am looking at long range forecasts through early March, and it looks like the current trend will stay, at least through then.

So I have decided today to go out and plant frost tolerant plants, direct seeding. I will be putting out tons of Alaska peas, onions to fill in the spots where some of my fall planted onions got eaten by bunnies, leeks, watercress, carrots, and I am going to start my eggplants and some potato seeds inside. I've never started potatoes from actual seeds before, so this should be interesting.

I am hoping that we don't get any more freezing weather, which we shouldn't, but we will of course get plenty of frost, so I will reevaluate on March first what the forecast looks like, and maybe start planting early. I have a lot of seed that's getting older that needs to get planted out anyway, so I may start with those seeds, overseeding a bit just to be sure I get germination.

In trying to decide between transplanting and direct seeding, I have always started seed inside in early spring, and know how those seedlings fare. So this year I thought I'd try direct seeding outside while it's still cool. Germination will be lower, but the quality of the surviving plants will be much higher than transplanted seedlings, and they will produce better.

Keeping my fingers crossed. Lots of new experiments happening this year!

I don't believe Phil

OK, Phil says an early Spring. For some reason I am reluctant to believe him. Perhaps that's because last year he told us a late Spring, but we actually had excellent planting weather more than 2 weeks before our average last frost date.

Yellow Granex Onions

This year he says early Spring, but as I'm typing this it's pouring ice and sleet and snow outside, with no warming trend anywhere in sight. I'm ready to start planting, the birds are singing, and I've seen the cranes flying North, but I don't see a lot of other signs that Spring really is near.

Despite my reservations, there are still a lot of chores to do to get ready. I have been working like a dog trying to get 10 new beds ready to receive potatoes, sweet potatoes and squash. I also spent the last few days cleaning up older beds and taking stock of what veggies have made it through the pretty brutal Winter.

I was so pleased to find that most of my collards and onions had survived, even the itty bitty sprouts that I seeded last October are hanging in there. I can't believe that they have survived temps down near zero with no apparent damage. I plan to allow a few go to seed in the Spring.

I planted bunching onions, American Flag leeks, and Yellow Granex sweet onions. The only problems I've really had is that bunnies have gotten in and are mowing off the tops. They should be fine if I can figure out how to keep the rarebits at bay.

Georgia Collards

I am also very impressed with my Georgia collards. This is the first year I have grown collards, and they were unbelievably productive and sweet all through the first snow. Since then they've just been hanging on, not doing much but making small rosettes. I suspect they're just biding their time waiting for better weather. I'm hoping I get at least a few weeks of greens from them before they bolt, but I definitely want the seeds from these guys as well.

Grand Rapids leaf lettuce

One of the most important aspects of sustainable living and gardening is seed saving, something I have been rather lax about over the past couple of years. But it's so important that any plants that thrive and produce in your soil, you save. Even if you plant a hundred of one particular type, and only one or two survive drought, flood, cold, heat, pests, etc., for whatever reason that one specimen has the genetic potential to thrive in your particular growing conditions.

That's God working through the process of "survival of the fittest" evolution, something you can see occur in a single generation in your garden. Those specimens that can't adapt get eliminated and do not pass on their genetics to any future generations.

I had good luck this year with my lettuces. I had planted about 1000 head of leaf varieties, and my survivors today are Red Sails, Redina, Freckles, and Grand Rapids, all varieties designed to tolerate cold temps. They did not survive unscathed, most of their outer leaves got burnt, but they are already producing new rosettes.

Chinese Tatsoi

One of my most amazing survivalists was a single head of chinese Tatsoi, a beautiful chinese cabbage that can be used like spinach, eaten raw in salads, or stir fried. I'm not sure if it will self pollinate, so I will plant a couple more next to it this Spring just to be sure I get viable seed.

Roquette (Rocket) Arugula

Other survivors were all of my spinach, escarole and curly endive, my red russian kale, and of course that old work horse of winter gardens, arugula. If you haven't grown and enjoyed arugula, you are really missing out. While we did have some die back, the new leaves are smaller and a little tougher than the foliage they produced in the Fall, and the flavor is excellent.

So even though it looks like we will have a couple more months of cold wet weather, I can't help but notice those giddy feelings of excitement when I start thinking about the glorious weather ahead and all the fun I'm going to have sitting out in my garden planting, weeding, listening to the birds and watching the horses and the cow enjoying the first grass of the year out in the pasture. It's gonna be a great year, if it ever gets here!