What have you done today in the Garden?

Today I planted radishes, mâche, lettuce ( Bibb and Black Seeded Simpson), Swiss chard, spinach, cilantro, and a few turnip seeds, in one of the new raised beds. The added height helps so much. The rows are 4 feet long, one foot apart. Most of those are happy in chilly weather, and today reached 67F anyway (In February! Wow! Mâche supposedly wont germinate above 65F but I'm thinking it will cool down for a few months). As with the snap peas, they all need to do their thing by mid to late march, when their bed will be planted with tomatoes.

This is the current arrangement. The row markers are poles cut from coppiced pussy willow. They make just about the right size for garden poles.



There is one remaining raised bed to plant with a cool season early crop (snow peas, for greens and I hope snow peas before June, and to enrich the soil), and there are potatoes sprouting in the pantry, then I can relax kitchen garden planting for a month.

 

Mate, I am so jealous that you can plant outside already. Well done, you.

 

Had a problem with my little trail camera yesterday. A bit of a build up of condensation on the lens and the sensor. So I took it indoors, removed the six screws that hold the front on, then left it on a shelf above a radiator to let it dry out, then wiped over the lens a the glass in the cover with a microfibre cloth and put it back together again. It was the first problem I'd had with it in nearly a year.

It's constantly in the rain so gets very damp.

So I made this little cover from a bit of plastic guttering and odds and ends I had in the garage, which will keep a lot of the rain off it. Only took a few minutes.

 

@Sjoerd, yesterday was so warm it was both wonderful and a bit worrisome. If fruit trees come out of dormancy too early and there is a hard frost while they are blooming, that can mean no crop and, sometimes, the tree will die. That's why I don't grow apricots - they always bloom too early, then are killed by frost. That's part of what makes gardening exciting - one never knows what will happen

 

Yeah, the early warm periods are worrisome here as well; however, it is more of a problem for my bees than for my few fruit trees. Still...a serious problem.

 

Sjeord it is worrying about your bees.It's been really cold here and this morning saw a bumble Bee, good thing that I grow the hellebores.
Yes sometimes here the blossom comes out then we have a hard frost, can get frost up to the end of may.
The plum trees blossom at this time and then could get a frost but the tree doesn't die.

 

Yeah its a bit worrying as there are not yet sufficient blooms available for my bees, so each flight wastes a lot of energy, and it is not sure that they will be able to return to the hive due to the coolness. It is a period where they could run out of food in their hives. It is simply one of those things where I shall have to wait and see.

 

@Sjoerd I hope your bees are OK. I tried beekeeping for several years and they disappeared each time. I think part of that was the yellow jacket population.

Today it was 67 F outside. That's 19.4C. Last year it was snowing. Dandelions are blooming. Soil temp was 10C. I planted a bed of snow peas and a row of carrots.

 

Hopefully hubby can get some compost this week so I can start sowing the chillie and Snapdragon seeds.

@Sjoerd is there any early flowering plants that you can plant that flower this time of the year?

 

Oh Loggie I have planted them but this year they are not showing yet except for some of the Galanthus. It is odd how they are going— they made an early start and then stopped. It seems every spring (and season for that matter) are different now-a-days. It is getting to be “reactive gardening”, instead of “planning gardening”. That is to say, you have to see what Mother Nature gives you and then react to that with your planting and other things. I am always playing catch-up with with my veggie growing. One adapts, its part of the hobby.

The perennial flowers are what give me the most amazement. To follow their bud development and then blooming is strikingly inconsistent here these days.

 

Sjeord that's a shame about that, they will eventually come up. Yes the seasons are not how they used to be.
I still only plant things out at the end of may just incase we have a late frost but usually we don't.
Yes the perennials are amazing but I think that I've lost some of my lupins, they had lupin aphids last year and they haven't recovered, good thing that I grew some more from collected seeds.

 

Arrrrgh —- The aphids. What a headache. I go around the lottie and collect ladybugs and actually place them on plants. But first, I mash some on the plants to release the smell into the air to attract more ladybirds and lacewings.
Good luck with your lupins this year, meid.

Thanks Daniel— those are a problem for me too, but I found the answer and now have had no problem for several years. It was so bad that when I was doing the ten day check, i had to pick them off the frames! They are such nasty pests.

 

Dandelions are blooming. The saying is, "When dandelions are blooming, plant beets, lettuce, spinach and carrots" so we are in good shape. I don't like beets but Swiss Chard is basically beet leaves, so planted those.



I used to dig dandelions to feed to the hens. They love them. Now I leave some for early foraging honeybees.

I can't go to the store yet for potato starts, and mail order ones wont come for six weeks or so. It's considered better to grow potatoes from commercial starts, but I have to make do. These were sprouting in the pantry so I planted them today.

 

Good onya for leaving those dandys.
Your season is really starting up there.

 

I'm concerned that the early warmth means vulnerable fruit trees will bloom, then be hit by a late frost. Or fig shoots will start growing then be hit by late frost. Either could kill the trees. I don't want to worry about it, just wait and see.

The early veggies can take a freeze. I overwintered Chinese cabbage, turnips, radishes with no protection at all. Slugs ate a lot of them, but the freeze didn't damage. I think carrots would be the same way, since we have zillions of wild carrots that grow as perennials. I also planted mustard last fall. The seedlings came through the hard freeze just fine too.