Hardening off the early plants

It is that time of year.  Time to start putting out those early plants to get them ready for the brutality of life in the garden.  Some of the things I will do an early start on are onions, lettuce, spinach, kale, cabbage... the cold weather crops.  You can start them indoors like I do with onion seeds for my storage onions, or start them in the ground like I do for green onions and peas.
If you start plants indoors they have the best of growing conditions.  Perfect water, perfect light...the good life.  Outdoors it is windy and cold.  The full sun is more than they are used to.  Taking plants out means doing it in slow steps.  First days are just for a few hours, out of the wind, indirect light.  Lengthen the time out, increase the light exposure, get them used to the breezes then bring them back in at night.  If you have an unexpected snow storm or cold snap into the teens and 20's, keep them in.  Within a couple of weeks they are spending the whole day outside from sun up to sun down.  The leaves feel thicker, stronger than the tender plants you started with.
The cold tolerant plants will be ready for planting out in the garden as long as the soil is workable.  If you have to chip away the ice, it's too early.  If the soil feels like a wet sponge, it's too early.  It should turn easily and hold together without water dripping out when you squeeze it in your hand.  You can use floating row covers to add some protection or a heavier frost cover if some colder weather sets in after planting.  It is surprising what cold weather crops can handle.  They are not talking very favorable conditions for my planned planting on Easter weekend, but I am going to start making my plans anyway.

Baby, it's cold outside

After so many warm weather autumns, this one has taken us by surprise.  It has been colder than normal and we even have some snow that fell three days ago and is still sticking to the grass.

I had sprayed my shrubs with rabbit repellent for the winter but hadn't put up the fencing around them or wrapped those in burlap that needed winter protection.  I bought three bales of straw and only had one down on the parsnips and carrots to try and keep the ground from freezing.  The potted shrubs just barely got dug in to the garden before the ground got to hard to get a shovel in.  I peeled apart the last two frozen straw bales to finish heeling the shrubs in.  The fence and burlap was a quick job before the snow fell.

There is a slight warm up coming in the next week in which I am hoping to dig up some of the parsnips and all of the carrots.  I also need to cut down my two story high sweet autumn clematis for the winter.  There just aren't enough hours in the day or energy in my system!

From summer to spring again

The weather has changed again.  Our 80's are gone and we are cool and rainy today.  This is a relief to me as I was going to have to water the raised veggie beds tonight if it didn't rain.  The cool weather crops of lettuce, radicchio, cabbage, chard, spinach, and peas are sprouted from the heat but enjoying a long cool drink that has been falling most of the day.  I took a quick walk after work to find most of these crops pushing the row cover up a bit.  I like to leave the row cover on so the bug problems are minimized and weather damage is greatly reduced.  The leafy crops are so much nicer growing under a sheet of row cloth.  It is a small investment that is easily recouped with better crops and less use of bug control products.

I moved the tomatoes, peppers, impatiens, and the younger seedlings in for the night.  It is best to not chill these plants and have their growth set back.  They really like it warmer, so I won't put them in the ground for another couple weeks.  I wait until at least the first full week of June to set their roots in the soil.

The lilacs are in full bloom this week and smell wonderful.  The crab apples are on the down hill slide and had a shower of petals falling on the ground this morning.  That is always a pretty sight to watch.  

The forsythia put on a good show this year.  The park has a large hedge row of them that had grown over with weeds and brush.  A former homeowner concerned about security in his yard had the park cut everything to the ground over three years ago.  The forsythia responded to the renewal cut with a very profuse bloom this year.

My husband is getting ready to set the posts for the kiwi trellis.  We are going to use a T-bar and wire support system.  I also want to espalier and apple tree, so he will set a third post and tie into one of the kiwi post for both applications.  I am looking forward to the new challenge.

The asparagus which I just covered is now 8" over the new soil that I just added to the trench.  I should be able to completely level the bed this weekend.  The purple passion stalks are different from the usual green.

The last of the seedlings are up.  I should be able to move more of the basement plants out to the outdoors this weekend.  Lights will be going out on multiple levels.  I will probably dismantle the light and shelf system over the kitchen sink and just go outdoors with most everything at this time.  I may still start one more crop of summer lettuce to put seedlings in between pepper plants and under beans.  It is nice to have them all space out when they go into the garden.

Big planting weekend coming up with Memorial Day giving us a long weekend.  Get out to the garden center these last couple days before the mob hits the garden centers.