Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
digit_gw

The Early Plantings!

digit
14 years ago

I finished all the early plantings, today.

. . . seeds, plant starts, glads . . .

Soon, very soon, the warm-season transplants will go out, too!

digitS'

And when the evening comes, we smile

So much of life ahead

We'll find a place where there's room to grow

And yes! we've only just begun

Comments (17)

  • digit
    Original Author
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yesterday, before I loaded the pickup with 6 boxes filled with sawdust and glads, flats of statice, tiller, and everything else - I shaved, put on my favorite gardening shirt and my best baseball cap. The evening before, the first day this year with tempe/temperatures above 80, I'd rested from my labors under the Northern Spy apple tree in Dad's backyard.

    I bought that apple tree in 1975 for another home and yard. Within a few years, I'd moved elsewhere and with a new home in the shade of large pines, I moved my young fruit trees to Dad's yard.

    Nearly 35 years later, I'm sitting under one of those trees enjoying the fragrance of its just-opening blossoms. It is really quite remarkable to be shaded by the branches and flowers of a tree with which you have so much personal history.

    Yesterday, was a historical day also. Completing those early plantings is a milestone in my preparation for the year. There will be another milestone coming up when the warm-season transplants are all out. As with everything, it will just be a matter of timing and the winds and rain has started again here, this morning.

    Most of the hard work is behind me. The cleanup to the lawn and flower beds around the house have also been completed. It will just be the mowing and watering . . . and so on - from here on out.

    I wanted to give myself some credit for my modest steps into the 2009 gardening year. I carried over 300 dahlia roots and that many glad corms up the basement stairs again this Spring. Sometimes, I wonder how I can take the steps to get myself down the driveway, let alone, up and down those stairs.

    I'm glad I bought this home back in the 90's when it was obvious that I move into retirement. My previous home would not have afforded me the chance to put in more than a tiny greenhouse and still have a backyard.

    My neighbors must wonder about my antics, here, on the other side of the fence. My 4 laying hens don't have any competition, anyway.

    One neighbor has a carefully manicured lawn but there's grass, gravel, bark, arborvitae and nothing else, not even a stepping stone or a birdbath or a pot of petunias. I noticed that the guy across the road and the other nextdoor neighbor have both taken 3 days to "trim" their lawns. The grass will soon be at mid-calf without the arrival of a mower. Something of a "mullet" hairstyle for the lawn, I guess. Three days . . . and counting.

    I got weeds but at least I can push my lawnmower around the yard. The tulips have bloomed, the iris are blooming and columbines will soon open their fairy flowers. Then the peonies and on, and on . . . I'm glad I put up the little white picket fence a dozen years ago and could get it painted for the 4th time this Spring.

    So, I'm giving myself some credit as I look forward to another year in the yard and the 3 gardens, all the good vegetables, and sitting under the apple tree in Dad's backyard. You should give yourself a little credit once in awhile, too. Don't you think?

    d'S'

  • windwhipped
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Your energy is amazing, digit! My efforts are pitiful compared to yours but I, too, am reveling in my accomplishments. It's astounding how much joy there is in little things. This morning it was the two tiny little green onions that have surfaced. I've not grown onions before this year and I was getting a little worried that they might not show up at all. I can't tell you how happy it made me to see them. Two little onions, for heaven's sake!!

    Yesterday, my thrill was watching the birds come to take a bath right after I had come in from topping off the birdbath. I know none of my immediate neighbors (2 sides, 1 back, 2 diagonal) has a birdbath and I find that so strange. So little effort to fill your yard with birds singing - who wouldn't do that?

    My median irises are about to pop, too, and my columbines are right on their heels. And the late daffodils, really late this year, are blooming.

    There are still a million things to do, and I'm not doing them today because of the heat, but I do feel I'm a little ahead this year. It may be an illusion, but if so, it's a good one.

  • highalttransplant
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    With the warm spring we've had here, my early plantings have been done for quite a while. As a matter of fact, as I am typing, I'm eating a salad from the garden - 5 kinds of lettuce, spinach, a couple of radishes, a chive blossom or two, a little parsley, a few oregano leaves, a store bought carrot, some cheese, sunflower seeds, and some store bought dressing. Can you tell the "meat-eater" isn't home tonight, LOL?!?

    Yesterday, I planted 6 of my indoor sown pepper plants in one of my Earthboxes, and they will spend their first night outside, under the protection of the porch. I've got to get the rest of my wintersown sprouts planted out, so the Earthbox can take their place on the patio. Not having much luck with planting out the wintersown perennials this year. I'm pretty sure it's not weather related, since I've been keeping them well watered, and shaded, but the leaves are turning brown and crispy a few days after being planted out. I'm beginning to suspect the mushroom compost that I'm using is the culprit, because all of the plants that went into containers with potting mix are doing just fine. What sort of planting medium do you guys use on young sprouts going in the ground?

    Anyway, back to the topic of early spring plantings, I just noticed my first bloom on the snap peas, a full month earlier than last year! The broccoli and cauliflower are starting to put on some growth now too. The direct sown cukes are starting to sprout, and I need to sow the melons soon. Oh, one more ?, when I harvest radishes, can I sow a replacement, or is it too late now that the temps are reaching the 80's? Some of the pepper plants are the size of small shrubs now, and are close to being hardened off. I'm holding off on planting them out in the vegetable bed for now though, since the tomatoes need to go behind them, and I'm not sure I'll have enough room left to crawl around back there if the peppers are in there.

    Got the grasshopper bait spread a couple of days ago, but saw a couple today that were in the 3/4" range, so I hope I didn't wait too late on that. There are a gazillion of the little monsters out there!

    Bonnie

  • digit
    Original Author
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Here Windwhipped is just celebrating daffodils blooming and you are eating a salad from the garden, Bonnie?!

    (No, you cannot sow radishes now . . . keep on using that crummy mushroom compost, not to do so would just be to admit having made a mistake . . . and you may as well chuck those peppers that are as large as shrubs . . . ;o)

    Okay, I feel better!

    Oh, I'll have a salad by and by. Windwhipped will have more onions than she has strength to carry out of the garden. We'll get there.

    I always use Black Gold potting soil for plant starts. . . the organic blend. I'm afraid to do otherwise. About 15 years ago, I used a different mix and it almost ruined my gardening season - - had to scramble around and restart things! And yes, I know that I should use a "starting mix" but if it ain't broke . . .

    It only got up to 61° and after a cold, cloudy, blustery day - the sky has cleared and the temperature is supposed to go to 36° tonight with a "freeze warning."

    S'

  • digit
    Original Author
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Bonnie, I'm glad you gave yourself credit for being a good gardener. And, I hope you enjoy many salads and wonderful things from your garden this season.

    Steve

  • highalttransplant
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    If it makes you feel any better, Digit, I noticed this morning that after two months of completely ignoring the pepper plants growing in the kitchen window, one of the cats ate several leaves off of a couple of them, so they are looking decidely less shrub-like this morning : (

    Maybe that's a sign that it's time to plant them out, and let them fend for themselves!

  • laura_42
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    We just had our first salad of the season last night: lettuce, spinach, arugula, lamb's quarters, chives, carrot greens, radishes, with a few viola blossoms for color. Lovely!

    Picked some more radishes for a snack this afternoon. The hot weather made them quite spicy...

  • highalttransplant
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ooooh, very nice, Laura! They're almost too pretty to eat!

    This is my first time to grow radishes, and one thing I find kind of strange, is that when I take a bite of one by itself, it tastes quite peppery, but in a salad, I don't notice the bite at all. So does the size have anything to do with how hot they taste, or is it strictly weather related?

    Bonnie

  • singcharlene
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi all,

    Those are gorgeous radishes! Pats on the back to all for hard work done and to be done!

    I've had all the cool season/cole crops in for a while now with frost blankets on them many nights. The wintersown broccoli and cabbage starts I planted out about a month ago were so tiny I thought they might not make it but now they are the same size as the six pack of store bought cauliflower starts (that were three times the size)!

    We've been eating spinach, lettuce, parsley and cilantro from the garden for a while now :)

    This is the first year since living in this house that I haven't devoted all of my gardening time to the veggie garden...I've planted lots of pots and wine barrels around our property with colorful flowers and grasses-makes such a difference! A new flower bed in the front with daylilies, daisies, groundcover oregano, and mums (everything listed so far is from the current or previous swaps!), two store bought clematis, and few ornamental grasses. A xeric bed at the back of the house with grasses, catmints, penstemon, agastache, artemisia (again most of these things were saved in a temporary bed from previous or the current swap!). Fun! I'm finally catching the flower bug. Wondered when it would happen!

    I have a lot to do with the new raised beds we've added to the vegetable gardens. With two babies I've got to be patient and just do what I can do ;)

    Charlene

  • jnfr
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I started my salad stuff at least a month late, but since this spring has been so cool and rainy everything is doing great so far!

  • digit
    Original Author
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This is what we need - more bragging!

    (Teasing from the sidelines is permitted - I think. ;o)

    We're doing great and should be patting ourselves on the back, also!

    Gardeners tend to be a restrained bunch - don't you think?

    digitS'

  • windwhipped
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well, hey, if we're bragging I guess I should tell you I now have four green onions. The only problem being they are all close together and should probably be thinned. But I did get out today and plant a couple of tomatoes in the W-O-W's and one little bell pepper out in the open. It's a good idea to plant little things out just before a windy rainstorm blows through, right?

  • laura_42
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Bonnie -- Thanks. :) I think several factors might be working all at once in regards to radish spiciness: heat, size, soil, variety, etc. All I know is, when the weather got hot, so did my radishes.

    A Wikipedia article had this to say:

    "The raw flesh has a crisp texture and a pungent, peppery flavor, caused by chewing glucosinolates and the enzyme myrosinase in the radish, that, when brought together form allyl isothiocyanates , also present in mustard, horseradish and wasabi."

  • greenbean08_gw
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I bought some sprouting seeds this spring. The first to arrive were the radish seeds. When they were big enough to eat, I tried some straight from the jar and those little buggers were hot like mid-summer radishes. DH loved them. I added them sparingly to my salad...

    I picked a few radishes from the garden a couple weeks ago. They were nice and mild. I usually like to grow them more than I like to eat them but I ate these. I hope the next batch is the same way.

  • digit
    Original Author
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Have you tried radish seed pods?

    Harvesting them has to be right on-the-money. If you wait too long, the pod becomes fibrous. I suppose the flowers are perfectly edible so you probably can't really harvest too early.

    Try the seed pods. It is a way to assert your intention to allow them to run to seed . . . ♪ . . If others sample the pods, you may even get away with this.

    (There's more than one way to gain bragging rights in the garden ;o)

    digitS'

  • greenbean08_gw
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I don't think I've ever let a radish get that far before to even know they HAD seed pods :-)

    I am planning to let some go to seed though. I've planted some with the squashes as a companion plant so I won't be plucking those for my salad. What do you do with the pods? (well, I'm assuming you eat them, but what preparation is needed? )

  • digit
    Original Author
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    They are wonderful in stir-fries. If you don't just snack them all away before dinner.

    Honestly, a tender seed pod has a better flavor than the root. Or, it has seemed so at the time . . .

    They are pickled in some places but I don't suppose one can slice them and lay 'em out between two slices of buttered bread (the best way to enjoy the roots :o). Maybe . . .

    S'

Sponsored
Hoppy Design & Build
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars9 Reviews
Northern VA Award-Winning Deck ,Patio, & Landscape Design Build Firm