N&C Midwest - April 2018–Snuck up on me!

It has been so cold and unseasonably wintry here I completely dropped the ball on the April thread.

I have ZERO going outside.  I have some lettuces ready to harden off.  Hopefully, it will be warmish and dry enough to get to the SFG this weekend and start some peas, spinach, radishes etc.

Sick. Of. Winter.

Oh, snowing lightly as I write this.

SR my MM is still froze solid. Won't be planting in it for days/weeks.

It makes perfect sense why April would sneak up on you... it still seems like winter! 

There's a freeze warning here tonight and temperatures are supposed to drop back into the 20s next week.  This is my first year to start most of the plants from seeds and I've become attached to those little seedlings.

I definitely will not be planting carrots during our traditional Carrot week this year!

I know it!!!!  I am so bummed out!  I just got an order shipped to me today of 2 fig trees, 2 rhubarb, and 2 Concord grape plants!!!!  HALP!

My MM isn’t frozen, TD, but it is cold and wet.  

And I have 30 strawberry plants on order as well.....come on Spring!

OK, big issue...

Today, I had 30 strawberry (dormant) plants arrive, and 2 Chicago Hardy Fig trees, 2 Rhubarb nubbins, and 2 Concord grape plants (bare-root)

It is going to be gorgeous tomorrow and Friday.  100% chance of rain all weekend.  Plus I need to se-seed my peppers, start tomatoes (lights) and succession plant in some more lettuces.....

Do I take a half day Friday?  And at least ready the bed for strawberry plants?  Needs newspaper laid down, and a layer of MM on top.  (Major grass weed invasion needs smothered)

I am thinking bail Friday and get that going.  Maybe peas and radishes?  Stupid weather!

I would. This spring we need to grab any chance it gives us.

Turan wrote:I would.  This spring we need to grab any chance it gives us.

I think I am gonna take half a day.  Gonna get the seeds in the ground.  Rain all weekend, and gonna snow again on Monday am, but the seeds won’t  mind under their MM blanket!

I think I will concentrate on getting the seeds in.  Lots of stuff that need to go in!!!  Then, I can use the rainy weekend to do the indoors hotties starting; peppers, eggplant, maters, maybe not squash yet...they go fast.  

PLAN!

I am very glad I grabbed yesterday's warm afternoon to do garden work. It is snowing/slushing/raining/ yucky now. I wish I had planted a tree or bush yesterday, this weather today is perfect for them.
Enjoy your day!

Did you ever think you would take a day off just for the garden!

I know, Turan and sanderson!  I got home at 2, got 2 beds ripped out and built back up.  Nothing in .  WHY do I so under estimate the time allotment for any task?

The beds look nice, all fluffed up, more MM, one bed seemed to lack vermiculite.  Fixed.  My hotties will go in the old grandfathered window boxes.  Have sometime.

Aleve...on board.

My go-to is Advil. I spent 3 partial days up in a xylosma tree pruning it last week, finding muscles I didn't know about.

sanderson wrote:My go-to is Advil.  I spent 3 partial days up in a xylosma tree pruning it last week, finding muscles I didn't know about.  

Oh wow!  Normally I do ibuprofen but wanted a little longer bang for the buck!  Raining here now, so everything is just kinda waiting...

Figures next week forecasted to be coldish.  Maybe I can get some stuff in after work...

OK, so started my peppers, maters, eggplant!!! And herbs on the heating pad.  Also marigolds and nasturtiums.  PLEASE!!!!

Well, cold.  Just cold!

There is hope, midwesterners!  Today is warmer, a few more frigid nights, but I think we are finally turning a corner!  

This weekend will be direct seed weekend!  In will go carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, spinaches, sugar snaps, mustard greens and kohlrabi.  

Also need to pick up some seed potatoes and get those in my deep bed.  I have my second try at herbs, tomatoes and peppers under the lights as we speak.  Hardening off some overgrown starter cells of lettuces.  They too will go in.  Somewhere!

You are going to have a busy weekend. Is seems temps are finally getting decent everywhere.

I've had horrible luck starting seeds indoors this year...I bought seed starting mixes and I think they weren't very good...peppers germinated fine then the tips died out...some that looked dead then sprouted new leaves but never really grew...then I accidentally left them out overnight during a cold spell and fried them...I see new leaves again but they're so far behind...probably a 95% fail.

The tops of my tomato seedlings are dying...they look bad...hopefully they take off with new leaders once planted next month.

100% fail on my greens (napa cabbage, green cabbage, etc.)...stunted and flowering at 1" tall.  

Beets, Sugar Ann peas, and onions the only saving grace so far.

Every year is different, isn’t it?  

I today, put in 30 strawberries.  Collection:  Earliglow, Evie, and Cabot.  

Also, my son helped me plant 2 Chicago Hardy fig trees, 2 seedless Concord grape plants. And 3 crimson rhubarb plants....love rhubarb!

Also got my seeds in:  radish, turnip, mustard, kohlrabi, turnips, spinach, sugar snap peas, carrots, beets.  

And then planted out my lettuce starts...hope they make it!

Finally a weekend without snow!  Got all the Hollyhock and Sunflower skeleton stalks cleaned out from last year.  Got the leaves that were packed around them all raked up.  Now I am going to solarize my 3 boxes - serious thistle and bindweed blow-in and creep-in.

Goosegirl wrote:Finally a weekend without snow!  Got all the Hollyhock and Sunflower skeleton stalks cleaned out from last year.  Got the leaves that were packed around them all raked up.  Now I am going to solarize my 3 boxes - serious thistle and bindweed blow-in and creep-in.

I wish I had time to do some of that...and mow.  My back patio area is pretty bad with dead skeleton stalks!

I had a serious grass invasion from un-clean straw that I composted.  That bed is the strawberry one.  So I laid down newspaper, and covered it with fresh compost and manure.  Soooo, we will see.  Planted the dormant plants on top of the paper layer and hope it stops some of the grass.

Bindweed is a bite!

Lots of skeleton stalks to get after here too. I got the hollyhock and sunflowers done, now for the asparagus and clematis vine. I got the solarization and smotherization thing going too. I hope to get 2 cycles of weed seed sproutings done-in in the carrot/ parsnip bed. It snowed all day today.

Nice seeing you again GG

Turan wrote:Lots of skeleton stalks to get after here too.  I got the hollyhock and sunflowers done, now for the asparagus and clematis vine.  I got the solarization and smotherization thing going too.  I hope to get 2 cycles of weed seed sproutings done-in in the carrot/ parsnip bed.   It snowed all day today.

Nice seeing you again GG

YES!!  Love seeing GG!  And way to go on the situation, Turan!

We are supposed to get rain today, hopefully the snow is OVER!  After we get a good soak I am going to put the plastic over the beds to get a good steamy start to the solarization.  I have one long skinny bed that has spots that still have ice under the surface layer, so hopefully the rain will get that to thaw and I can dig it up.  It is getting moved and a narrow walkway being put in that spot.  I have 4 dwarf fruit trees and asparagus crowns coming so I need to get everything ready for the new perennials.  

I am revamping the whole growing area this season to accommodate the change to more perennials, leaving me with just a few boxes for herbs and the veggies I need, like  , green beans, and a salad box.  My Nanking Cherry shrubs survived their first winter and are budding, so I will make sure they do not get hidden and shaded by volunteer sunflowers this year.  Still not sure if the elderberries and currants survived.  Rabbits nipped 3 of my 5 young chokecherry trees, 2 of the nipped ones still have some buds, so they may pull through - but I have a free source to dig as many new saplings as I want or need, so no worries! 

Now, can I get all this done before my surgery next week?!  

Carrots, radishes, bunching onions, spinach, lettuce and peas are all growing well.  I transplanted tomatoes and peppers Sunday and transplanted cucumbers and marigolds yesterday. 

I must re-think a trellis system for the peas.  Because my boxes are plastic, I cannot attach a trellis to them using screws.  I'm thinking of rigging up something using clamps.  Whatever I do, I must do it by this weekend as the peas are growing and starting to set out tendrils.

So happy to see vegies growing in the garden!