Filed under: family, Farm, frost, garden, planting, spring, Trees, weather | Tags: children, Easter, farm, garden, leaf lettuce, plant potatoes, Planting, potato, potatoes, spring
Well, I’ve done it, I finally started planting my garden. Usually you are fairly safe to start planting the more hardy plants by Easter. Many a person sets Good Friday as the day to plant potatoes. With this years good weather I could have had a lot more planted, but stayed away as long as I could. The exception, some potatoes.
About a month ago I looked at the sprouting left overs from last years garden and decided to try something crazy. I dug out these old pots and put those sprouted potatoes in. The plan is to keep adding soil as they grow. I’m hoping for some early potatoes. I figured I could move the pots inside when cold weather threatened and not have to worry, so far, no worry.
I had purchased some new asperges plants and some seed potatoes and decided to put them into the ground. My garden had been getting hard, so last fall I went through it with a deep tillage disk that I use in the fields. Now this spring I can tell that it helped. I took the tiller through the garden to get the early sprouting weeds, dug out some quack grass and dandelions and got planting. While I was at it I planted radishes, carrots, leaf lettuce, spinach and peas. These are all plants that can take being a little cold.
It doesn’t look like much now, but give it a few warm days and we’ll have some fresh veggies poking up.
The weather forecast is not hopeful for the plants that are already leafed out. Monday and Tuesday low temperatures are forecast to be well below freezing. That will push off my date for the start of corn planting. It is not only the corn that I have some concerns about. If the weather is cold enough the new blooms in the yard are in danger.
Our lilacs are just beginning to open.
The flowering crab is only days from blooming. The strong winds out of the north these last few days have not kept them from trying to bloom.
We can cover the tulips to protect them, but the trees are not going to be so lucky.
Talking about trees, my grandfather said you should wait until the ash and oak leaves were as big as a squirrels ear. We don’t even have much for buds on the ash, although they are showing their flowers.
I’m not worried about the ash trees, they will make it through quite a cold snap, but many other plants will not. I’m not sure how much cold the climbing rose will take at this time, I guess I’ll find out.
One plant I am hoping to see freeze off are these dandelions.
The blooms are staying close to the ground, so perhaps they know that the cold is not yet over.
Talk about Easter blooms, check out these little ones.
So here’s hoping your Easter garden is frost free and full of color.
Michael
Filed under: cold, Corn, Farm, garden, Minnesota, planting, rain, spring | Tags: carrots, cold, Corn, farm, Food, garden, leaf lettuce, Minnesota, peppers, Planting, potatoes, radishes, rain, spinach, spring, tomatoes
My veggie garden has been a bit slow getting started this year. With all of the rain and cold it’s been hard to get anything planted. Then there is field work and the preparations for the wedding and time for a veggie garden can be at a premium.
I always plant carrots, radishes, spinach and leaf lettuce early. I plant the carrots and radishes in the same row. The radishes are up early and fast so you can harvest them first, and thin the carrots at the same time. When the radishes are done the slower growing carrots are well set. So far the radishes are nearing harvest, the spinach and lettuce are small but looking good and the carrots are just peeking out.
Potatoes were planted late this year. Some are up and well started while others are just peeking their first leaves out.
I would have liked to have my sweet corn planted now but things have been a bit wet. If I can get a few more dry days I’m going to try to get it in the ground.
I picked up my tomato and pepper plants today and decided to plant them. The ground was very wet. Working the ground this wet can make for some badly compacted soil in clay based ground like mine. I’m hoping I got good enough soil contact to my plants without compressing the soil too hard for the roots. No need to water them.
I had a few spots in the lawn where I needed to plant some grass. Trying to get any soil to cover even these small seeds was tough. Some areas were so wet and hard all I could hope to accomplish was poke wholes in the ground. I’m hoping the forecast rains will get them started.
There is a lot of time left in the garden for this year. Maybe with some dryer weather I can get a few more things planted. Either way, gardening, like my field work, is turning out to be very interesting this year.
Michael
