Planting Weekend

While at first glance it seems like this is the start of the garden season, in reality we have been working on our garden for the past 5 months. During January snow, we prepared our garden plan and paged through seed catalogues. In February, we went from generalities like 'tomatoes' to planning which eight varieties we were going to grow, checked our seed vault, and ordered seeds as needed. Things began to pick up speed in March as we started onions, peppers, brassicas, and herbs from seed indoors. Seed starting continued into April, and we up-potted. We sowed seeds in the garden in early May for lettuce, peas, and other cool weather plants; and then covered them through four frosts.

Floating Row Cover Protects Against Yet Another Frost

Which brings us to late May. The danger of frost has hopefully passed, and the seedlings have been hardened off. Last weekend, we tilled the main planting beds and hand-turned the last of the raised beds. We pulled the weed barriers out of the barn, placed them on the freshly turned soil, and mulched paths with hay.

Freshly Tilled Soil

Finally, the warm weather plants are in the ground. This weekend, we planted the brassicas, peppers, and tomatoes. Everything is mapped or tagged, so we can see how several new varieties grow, but this year we are not trying as many new vegetables as we have in the past. We have largely settled on the types of cabbage, cauliflower, and tomatoes that have worked from us. We are trying a couple of new varieties of bell peppers, and are trying out hand at pepperoncini., but otherwise the same peppers as years past. One new thing we are trying is a large bed of flowers. That has already been a lot of work, and may not get repeated. But, once we start picking vases of bouquets, the pain may be forgotten.

Our 37 Tomato Plants

There is still a lot to do. Over the next week we will plant seeds for plants that like warmer soil temperatures like squash, cucumbers, and beans. But progress is being made, and all the plants are at least out of the basement. Through it all, our cats enjoyed the spring sunshine as they supervised the work. We all hope for warmer weather and rain.

Maple and Smudge Relaxing in the Hay Wagon