The pretty weather has had me wishing I was at home in the garden instead of sitting behind a desk at work.
Our tomatoes in the greenhouse are coming right along. I’ve planted the new variety, Matt’s Cherry, twice and not one seed has come up. All the other varieties germinated well.
The Deer Hunter has all the garden areas plowed and ready. Now we just need to get the rest of the veggies planted. We usually aim for the first or second week in May for planting our beans, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.
I’ve not heard from Sow True Seed concerning our reporting @ large vegetable, but I’ll be sure to let you know if I receive the extra seeds so you can be part of the fun!
Tipper
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That’s interesting about Matt’s Wild Cherry – I can’t keep mine down! They self seed absolutely everywhere :-/
Thanks for another great issue. Love every one. Being 81 years old and raised on a hillside farm, I can identify with everything you write.
It’s nice to know there are still people who remember the values of that long ago time.
Here’s how far behind our weather is to yours: I bought a little tinkertoy-type greenhouse this year to start seeds in. Yesterday the weather was finally dry and warm enough that I started setting it up! If this “heat wave” keeps up, I may even turn off the pilot on the propane heater til next Autumn.
I have already started building a new raised bed, and my Occasional Helper is coming tomorrow to help with the heavy work, as I am moving a lot of rocks – but rain is predicted again, so that may be a wash-out. Oh well. All a person can do is work around the weather when it comes to gardening!
Even though I rarely plant by the signs there are some things I would not dare do without paying a bit of attention to the signs. My hair grows so fast I have considered trying to make certain it is cut in a slow growing sign.
I look forward to following your garden, and your blog brings pleasure to many in so many different ways. It is great to follow it right into canning season, and I love your cold weather recipes as well. Winter gives a coziness, but Spring is such a wonderful time. When you start talking about a garden I know it is almost time for me to get started. The hoe has replaced the snow shovel on my porch! Your weather is a bit warmer, so you are able to get a head start. Due to a change in circumstances this year, I was unable to start my seeds indoors. I would not want to load them and run up and down the road with them, but it sure was tempting 🙂 Anyway if I can get the garden plowed I may just have to tend it on weekends. Much like my parents and their parents before them, I am just not complete without a garden. I sat down earlier today and ordered rhubarb seeds, and then I started thinking about the difficulty in germination and growing rhubarb. We are never too old to learn good or bad.
Tipper,
When I had a garden I was always anxious to get in there and mix it up some. I always planted things “by the Signs” and had a good harvest. In July, I canned about 70 quarts of Nantahala White Runners and gave away over 9 bushel to those less fortunate. Since it was hot in late July, I’d come in about 6 am and pick the beans. …Ken
Yep, we hate to lose any good growing weather.
I used your planting by the signs for April and planted most everything on the 16th and 17th in the sign of Taurus. It was actually a bit early and I knew it because the ground was a bit cold. But it has turned out OK. Most everything is up with few skips.
I have quite a bit of room left though. So I may well use this post and do some more planting by the signs. But I am not planting anything in the cucumber family this year because powdery mildew kills them. I think it got here soon after I did and has been getting steadily worse.
I was feeling a little guilty for not having tomatoes set out until this past Monday when we had a frost. Susan and I put them out yesterday, with a spoonful of Epsom salt, per advice from Blindpigandtheacorn.com.
A dear, fine lady, Christine Cole Proctor says:
Who plants a seed
Beneath the sod
And waits to see
Believes in God.
Since my tree canopy is closing in more each year I will try one more time to grow a pot of tomatoes on the deck. I know I will be out there every few hours moving the pot to follow the sun. Oh well, it is worth the trouble to have fresh tomatoes. I think this year it will be cherry tomatoes so when I am out there moving them I can eat a few.
Thank you so much for posting the May planting calendar. The weather here is about right for me to start planting. I have been planning to plant “Mary’s Beans” – – starting them in a pot – – since I don’t have a copy of an almanac yet. (Been spending my money on other stuff!) I need to do research how the signs of the Zodiac affect planting and things. My Mom and her Dad believed in “Planting by the Moon”. She told that one year she planted Green Beans. They bloomed and bloomed, but not one bean did they produce! She deduced that she had planted on a day better for flowers than for vegetables.