"All spring, I try to plant something every day "
Carla Emery, Encyclopedia of Country Living
I love that quote by Carla Emery, but I confess I haven't faithfully applied
it this year. We've had a lot of rain, so some days it's too muddy to work in
the garden. I managed to get my cool weather crops in, and now look forward to
our last potential frost date. That date falls in the middle of our spring
planting months, and so divides my planting season into early and late.
Planted so far:
- turnips
- kale
- carrots
- parsnips
- mangels
- sprouted pantry potatoes
- beets
- lettuce
- snow peas
- salsify
- pink dandelion
- cultivated burdock
- mizuna
- bloody dock
Of the root crops, only the mangels and burdock have emerged so far. You'll
see them with the other spring garden photos below.
I only had a few plants survive winter; the rest succumbed to the cold.
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These collard plants are several years old. I don't get huge
leaves
from them anymore, but the small ones are tasty too.
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One of just a few fall planted kale plants that made it.
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Fall planted garlic, multiplier onions, and volunteer potato
plant (the
sprouted pantry potatoes haven't emerged yet.)
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| More garlic |
The one that concerns me is our wheat. It's yellowing.
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Our fall planted wheat. Yellow from ???
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There are a number of things that can cause this: nitrogen deficiency, iron
deficiency, sulfur deficiency, fertilizer burn, herbicide injury, moisture
stress, plus disease or insect damage. Apparently it's common enough that
there are scores of articles written about it and speculating as to its
cause.
We don't use fertilizer, herbicides, or pesticides, so those are out as
causes. Nutrient deficiency perhaps. Dan side dressed the rows with compost to
see if it helps. Moisture stress is a possibility. Not from too little rain,
but because we've had so much. At any rate, it looks like we'll still get a
harvest.
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It's still going to seed.
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Saving for next year's seed will be the priority. We can always adjust our
diet to whatever's left over if we need to.
Next are the early spring planted veggies.
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Snow peas. No flowers yet!
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Lettuce and volunteer dandelion; both salad favorites.
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Mangels. These make great livestock feed (both leaves and roots).
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Mizuna and violets (of which the flowers are edible)
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Now that
the swale
is in and working well, I'm hoping my hoop house will be more useful in summer.
Its raised beds dry out quickly in summer, so that I tend to plant there as a
last resort. What I've decided to use them for is perennials, where the raised
bordered beds can keep them under control.
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Cultivated burdock and volunteer chickweed.
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The other thing I planted this spring was the garden swale berm.
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Swale berm planted with herbs and edibles.
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I made a seed mix of all my old herb, flower, greens, and root crop seeds plus
clover. Then I covered it with compost. Because the berm is sloped, much of
the seed has washed down a bit, but hopefully enough has stayed put to help
anchor the soil. It will be fun to see what grows.
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Seed mix sprouting on the swale berm.
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Then there are the perennials.
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My few asparagus plants were taken over by
blackberries and
daffodils, so I liberated them.
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I actually
gave up on asparagus
a long time ago, because the wiregrass kept choking it out. But I have four or
five plants that have hung in there over the years. We only get a few stalks
at a time and enjoy them greatly, so I think it's time to invest in more.
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Strawberries are thriving. My competition for those is slugs, birds,
and chipmunks.
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Red raspberries are leafing out.
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| Horseradish. Young leaves are good in a steamed greens mix. |
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Pear tree, garlic, & comfrey; swale berm in the background.
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Pear blossoms. Pears seem to be our most reliable tree fruit.
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Cherry blossoms. If I can beat the birds to them, I might get some!
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Our last expected frost date is right around the corner. Then we can get to
work planting our warm weather favorites. Like every other gardener on the
planet, I'm looking forward to that.
How about you? How does your garden grow?
