I haven’t posted in ten days because there’s been nothing to
write about. How can that be you might
ask, when life should be aburstin’ anew from winters deep sleep? Because it’s not burstin’ that’s why, and
winter has worn out what paltry welcome it was grudgingly given. Recently I was looking at the Purdue
extension page which noted that February was something like 9 F below average
and March was projected to be about 6 F below average. Good news though, we can expect April to be
only 2 F below average. Time to break
out the shorts and flip flops.
What
does that mean for the poor sot trying to raise some food in the backyard? It means growing plants is at least two weeks
behind a typical spring schedule. It
means that beds that should have been composted, fertilized and prepared for
the first seeds or seedlings are not ready, just sitting there, mocking me. Meanwhile the next set of cole crops was
getting leafy and more than ready for transplanting outdoors.
I’m cautiously optimistic that the foul weather is now done. After a dismal Saturday, rainy and cold, Sunday
and Monday have been like, well, spring, with a 10-day forecast of more nice
weather. Sunday I got to work.
Two beds needed immediate
attention, a 4x8 foot bed for cole crops and a 4x12 bed for onions, parsnips,
and a few rows of carrot. Garlic popped up at one end of this bed about a week
ago. I couldn’t remember where it was
planted last fall and was almost convinced that it was planted in another
bed. So much for my record keeping.
There
was enough finished compost available for these two beds. Ten days ago the compost pile was turned over
into a new pile until finished compost was reached in the bottom module. Sunday this compost was spread over the two
beds, about two wheelbarrow loads. I
broadcast some Chicky-Do-Do fertilizer and turned over the soil with a shovel. Looks like a healthy population of worms in
there. The bin on the right contains finished compost.
Today
the beds that were prepared on Sunday were cultivated with one of those little
2-stroke tillers, enough to break up the clods.
I like to wait a day after turning over the soil to give the earthworms
time to get back to deeper soil before tilling.
With the beds ready it was time to plant. A set of cole crops, storage onions and
lettuce were past due for transplanting outdoors. These are the onions which have been in the
mobile coldframe for several weeks now.
The
first set of cole crops had been planted in the bed with the plastic greenhouse
over it, but a very cold night about a week ago (14 F) had damaged them beyond
repair, so I replaced the broccoli and cabbage with new seedlings. The tatsoi plant doesn’t seem to be bothered
by a hard freeze. Some lettuce seedlings
also went into this bed. At one end is
overwintered spinach which should be ready to pick very soon. Then I decided to just remove the greenhouse
and put a cage over the bed to protect the leafy greens from rabbits.
The
onions went in this bed. Planting onion
seedlings is very tedious, as is the task of seeding them in flats. (Onions = tedium). I planted about half as much onion as last
year, when I harvested about 25 pounds.
You might be able to see the garlic at one end of the bed.
The
remaining cole crops went into another bed.
They look a little wilty as they were transplanted in full sun. I think the plants get a little shocked
because they are not adjusted to the intensity of sunlight. Their root systems were intact and well developed
and I’ve found that after the first day outdoors the seedlings recover well if the roots haven’t
been disturbed. There’s broccoli (Major
and Belfast), cauliflower (Snow Crown), cabbage (Gonzalez), and kohlrabi (Grand
Duke). I seed cole crops every 12 days
so there’s never a lot of them to set out at one time.
It's a start.
