68. Spring, Where Are You?
“One day, I’ll get the garden planted.” This is something I have been telling myself over the past couple weeks. The weather this year has been on the cool side so far and while I’m sure in July I’ll be begging for a cool down, right now I would rather it warm up. While it’s not technically too cold to plant things out, it’s not ideal temperatures for growing my summer crops. It does appear that in the next week should begin to warm up and hopefully it stays that way. Until then, let’s talk about what I have been able to get done this week.
Succession of radishes growing
First off, I got my dahlia tubers planted. While you can grow dahlias from seed, I wanted to start with tubers (they kind of look like potatoes). I’m excited to start growing these and see how they do for me this year. I planted about 15 tubers from various places I ordered from. I think the one I am most looking forward to is called Jowey Winnie.
Image From Little Seed Flower Farm
Second off, a lot of my spring crops are doing well with the cooler weather. I sowed a succession of radishes and my first crop is almost ready to be harvested. I hope to ferment some of them and some will be eaten fresh on tacos and salads. I also planned to grow beets this spring instead of waiting to plant them in the fall. So far they are doing so well and I think the cool start to the spring is helping them grow faster and better. I hope I will have enough for some pickled beets. One other thing that’s doing well is my potatoes. They look so healthy and strong so I’m hoping that means a lot of potato growth underneath the ground.
Potatoes looking healthy
Though it has been cooler than I like, I did decide to start hardening off my tomatoes. I want them to get outside before it gets too hot and begin growing on. So far they are all looking fairly healthy. A few didn’t take to the up pot when I transplanted them but when you start with over 100 tomato plants, it can be expected that you loose a few. The ones I am most excited to try this year are Hillbilly and Brad’s Atomic Grape. I also got some of my green bean seeds planted. I wanted to start with those since they will stop producing in the high heat of the summer so I wanted to get them in so they can produce before that comes, hopefully.
One of the Hillbilly tomatoes
Lastly, yesterday I got a lot of seeds in the ground with the pretty weather we had. Hopefully in a week or two I can update you on all of those. Until then, we’ll keep moving forward and hope the weather warms up some soon!
Bean planting
Until Next Time, Happy Gardening!