May Gardening

Although it is still a little cool out, we have begun planting for the 2025 garden season. Last weekend, Maggie planted peas, carrots, beets, onions, and radishes. I transplanted shallots that I started from seed. Shallots are an important experiment for us, as we usually buy onion sets. If we can successfully grow shallots, that opens the door to starting our onions from seed, so we can select long-day varieties that are specific to our latitude.

The other big additions to the garden this year are three varieties of seedless grapes and four varieties of currants. Preparation began last year by shading the grass with sheets of steel siding. This weekend, I tilled the beds with a used rototiller we bought. The beds were then covered with a new type of woven landscape fabric we are trying for the first time. The grapes received the start of a trellis system. I installed the posts and some cross bracing. The wire supports for the vines will get installed if the grapes take hold.

The currant bushes were simply planted into the ground through holes burned in the fabric. I am starting to wonder if we should have planted more of a smaller number of varieties, so we can get more of a single type of berry, but they will probably all just get mixed into jelly anyway.

I also tilled the main beds, and Maggie planted corn. I up-potted 48 pepper plants and 72 tomato plants in preparation for hardening the plants off. The assumption is that we will select the strongest plants to set in the garden, but Maggie always finds room to sneak in a few additional plants. We were both exhausted by the end of the day, which for us came around 8PM. They say that banker's hours are 9 to 5, but farmer's hours are 5 to 9. When the days get longer, you have to take advantage.