New England April 2014

NHGardener wrote:CC, Florida is too drastic. I've been thinking mid-way, like Virginia.

I lived in Alexandria, VA near Washington DC.  Pretty good weather.  4 defined seasons.  Not to hot and not too cold.

Well, yeah, Donna...  There IS that, lol!

Getting back to more news in the New England forum... no snow.    


Garden Chores for April via A Way To Garden blog.

Look at all that green and all those blank canvases!

I don't feel like I did much today but I've been in and out all day. Got a lot of seeds planted, a lot of things watered, the perennial gardens fertilized, the peppers are up potted, the food for next week is prepped, and my laundry's done.  Exhaustion is setting in. Too tired to go put burlap on the SFG. I think it will be okay with the tulle tonight, don't you?

all the fresh new green growth is poking through all the leaves and pine needles on the strawberry bed. I guess I'll have to clean that off at some point but for now I'm glad its still on there.


the little radishes are up. I just planted them a few days ago. Amazing. I have others in a different area that I'm going to allow to go to seed so I can eat the pods. But these guys were planted 4 the roots. I' had such a difficult time with radishes last year that I've got my fingers crossed for this batch


no sign of the potatoes in the left old school SFG. I did put wood chips in the back 3 spaces today along with some shredded paper in hopes of conditioning the soil. I won't be able to plant much in there this year but I can probably plant the ground cherries since the tomatillo did so well in there last year.

NHG, do you remember that there was one special potato onion in that batch that we bought from the same guy? Well this is it. It's the first one putting out green. I can't remember the name of it, can you?

Well, I was able to poke around outside for a bit today; just some winter-cleaning & stuff but it felt good to be outside.

Stuff that survived & are starting to send out green: chives, my French Tarragon (yay!), the rhubarb and my strawberries.   OH! and one variety of onion I planted last year but whose name tag is faded beyond recognition.  It wasn't in the SFG but in a random loose pot, so I have no idea what it is.  Pretty damned hardy, though.

No sign yet of the garlic or asparagus.

I did put some black plastic over some of the beds to try to speed up the warming a bit.  This morning the top 2" was frozen, followed by some 4" of nice, loose MM, followed by a solid mass of ice below (my SFG beds are almost a foot deep).  By this afternoon, the top icy crust had thawed, so maybe if it stays above freezing I can get the peas in tomorrow.
To Spring!   

quiltbea wrote:

That's my gardening efforts for now.  At least I've made some headway.

It's looking good QB!!!  

Beautiful photos, everyone! Thank you for posting those. 

I've been doing a lot of wheelbarrow work over the past week or 2. Yesterday I filled up my new compost bin with leaves, and chicken manure that I shoveled out from the coop. My calf muscle finally had its revenge last night and popped so that I'm on crutches!    This time of year, can you believe it? Torture keeping a gardener indoors.

But, the peas are sown, the spinach is sown, the beds are spruced, the indoor seedlings are mostly done except for squashes. Another week until potato planting. The only thing I wish I had gotten done was planting the potato onion bulbs.

CC, I believe the bonus onion was a Green Mountain. When I get to the other room I'll double check, but I think that's what it was.

Also, they say to plant potato onions shallowly - did you see that? Like, actually exposed.

Crutches?!!  That just won't do!  That was me at this time last year with hip bursitis and it was awful not being able to get things done.  Hope it heals quickly!

Yes, the onions are planted shallowly.  The brown in the photo is the papery top. 

Gotta get home for lunch break and garden NOW.  What a perfect day - finally no wind!
  

CC

Hello friends!  Of course I am seriously behind all of you since gardening only re-entered my mind a week or two ago.  I had planted garlic on Halloween.  Upon checking at that time, there was no growth under the straw.  I removed it and a few days later some started to poke through.  The majority of garlic planted was the variety 'music' which I had wanted to plant the previous year but which was sold out.  That year I planted 'German Hardy' and another reddish version (name escapes me).  One of my tags says I planted something I called 'second year' which I take it to mean that I planted some of the smaller cloves from year one.  (Should have kept better records, obviously)  At any rate, I seem to have poorer germination rates this year judging by what is poking through my garden.  I planted 8 squares (which is half my garden) 5 per square.  Looks like I will only get the same amount as last year when I planted 6 squares.  Hopefully the taste will make up for it.  I did buy the stock locally but from different growers in the area.

I also planted (in a pot) some walking onions that I found by the side of the road.  Some of them are growing.  I did not keep a record of how many I planted but at least something is happening.  

I erroneously thought that shallots were to be planted in the fall, which I did, in a pot.  Nothing happening there so I guess that's chalked up to experience. 

I am planning to put some peas in a large pot using an upside down tomato cage as the trellis.  The pot has Mel's mix in it.  I don't have a trellis for my SFG and only 8 squares left anyway.  Additionally, I read that peas do not do well next to garlic which it would have to be if in the SFG.  Has anyone done that, either with success or failure?

I do plan to put out some spinach seeds at the end of the week.  I am using that method I found in some post or other here whereby you soak the seeds overnight, dry them for two days on a paper towel and then put them in an airtight jar for a week prior to planting.  I sure hope I have remembered that method correctly because I can no longer found the post I saw last week.  I plan to plant two squares using this method, one this week and another in two weeks.  Do I have it correct that this is spinach planting time?

In a little stroke of luck I passed by a sign 'compost and a phone number'.  Called it and learned that they have fresh as well as 8 month composted horse manure.  Can be picked up for free or 4 yards delivered for $40.  Mentioned it to my neighbor who was excited to share a delivery of the composted with me and awaiting word back from the supplier.  Now..... can I put this in my sfg?  Can I put it in my compost to 'round it out' a bit (as it is mostly vegetable scraps)?  Or...what should I do with it to best utilize it?  One thing he did recommend doing with it is putting it at the bottom of tomato plants and then planting on top so the roots would go down and avail themselves of the nutrients.

Oh my word, I guess this is a long post.  Sorry and happy Spring to all!

Well cpl, the one thing I can answer is yes on the spinach seed. I planted spinach seed last week and put some agrabon fabric over it to keep the critters from eating the seed. It really should be watered, it's probably still sitting there. Hopefully rain will come tomorrow night.

cc, yikes. Were you on crutches for long, and how did you get your spring planting done last year? I am feeling very ornery about this setback. Completely frustrating.

All of my garlic isn't up yet but it is slowly emerging. Don't give up hope yet.

NHG, Ouch! I'm so sorry it happened, especially at this time of the year.

NHG I hope you are on the mend!

A storm is a comin' with the garden half ready. Garlic is up, the bok choy and rapini are eager for the rain.

Things look good, Camprn!  At least the snow is gone!  and I see stuff poking up...!

AtlantaMarie wrote:Things look good, Camprn!  At least the snow is gone!  and I see stuff poking up...!

The garlic is poking up. I transplanted the bok choy and rapini this afternoon. Hoping for rain and fair nights.

Oh, everyone's gardens are starting to wake up!  Isn't it exciting?  Yay!!!

cpl, regarding that "composted" horse manure, I'd go in person & check it out before agreeing to buy it.  Make sure they didn't put sand in their stalls and that it's not too wood-chippy (both have happened to me with horse manure, and neither is optimal). 

Even if it looks like pretty "straight" manure, and you do decide to get it, I'd still suggest mixing it in with whatever compost you have "cooking" and let it digest some more.  Other folk's definition of "composted" may not be the same as yours, and it will help with balancing out of the nutrients in your finished compost.  HTH.

NHG, I hope your calf heals up quick so you can get back in the garden.  It's definitely a lousy time for that to happen.   

so good to read that our friends who were in the cold for so long have gardens waking up   love all the pictures!!

hugs
rose

Camp,    I'm curious about when you first set out the boxes. Were your neighbors skeptical that anything would grow, much less that you could grow the bounty that you do each year? You should take another photo this summer from the same view point.

sanderson wrote:Camp,     I'm curious about when you first set out the boxes.  Were your neighbors skeptical that anything would grow, much less that you could grow the bounty that you do each year?  You should take another photo this summer from the same view point.

LOL, I live in New England, the neighbors said nothing, kept their own council. When I clearly had a bumper crop growing, that's when they all started to chatter and wanting to know what it was all about.

Each season I try to take before, during, harvest and after pics. 

Hailing...and some of my lettuces are uncovered... 

Oh my gosh, CapeC........How did your garden fare after all that hail?  I hope it was quick and non-lethal.

It's not over yet, but almost.  I just went home for lunch and there are piles of the stuff on the sides of the road.  The torrential rains must have caused the water to rise high enough to deposit it along the sidewalks and ends of parking lots.  

I went out in it while at home for a quickie photo of the kale in my kitchen garden and quickly came running back inside.  Can't get my camera to cough up the photos so it's not meant to be I guess. 

The romaine & butt. crunch are under tulle but the Grand Rapids is out in the open, as are newly planted seeds of lettuce, chives, scallions & chard.  I'll check on them tonite when I get home.

LOL butt.crunch.

CapeCoddess wrote:

oh, guess what?! the crocus bloomed today!

Coincidentally, I got photos of galanthus blooming on the 4th.

Today, saw a ton of daffodils blooming.

And a forsythia bush barely blooming.. What the heck..
Shouldn't they have been blooming earlier already??

There seems to be a lack of the familiar yellow blooms of April in 2014.....

RJ, I'm not far from you and my crocus aren't even in bloom yet, nevermind the daffodils.