What day of the week is it? In these days of the coronavirus as we attempt to stay at home the days begin to blend into one another. Watching the emergence of spring flowers and gardening progress helps me to keep a frame of reference. Here are some things going on in our gardens of late.
Broad beans apparently are somewhat popular with gardeners in the UK as evidenced by my viewing of Gardener’s World (BBC) on Brit Box. Unlike so many of the other varieties of beans that need warm temperatures to grow and produce fruit, this type does much better in the cool weather. By June these plants will have finished and I will be planting in a succession crop, probably summer squash.
Looking at the images from right to left, the first picture shows my preparation of a planting bed. First I spread a 2 inch layer of sifted compost on top of the soil and then I sprinkled on some 10-10-10 fertilizer. I used the cultivator to mix the fertilizer and compost into the top few inches of soil, not to deep, just enough to give it a head start in being incorporated into the soil. In the middle picture I have planted shallot bulbs that I had started in soil in the greenhouse a few weeks ago. This is one member of the allium family that I can eat if it has been cooked well enough. The picture on the left shows five short rows where I have planted seeds of spinach, Asian mustard spinach (another experimental vegetable for me this spring), Tat soi and arugula. These are all early season, cold tolerant crops that will be harvested by mid June and be replaced with a second crop (maybe bush beans) that grows well in warmer weather.
Lettuce is another crop that can withstand cooler temperatures and so these iceberg (heading lettuce) and buttercrunch (bib style lettuce) seedlings that I had started inside a few weeks ago have been planted out. If the temperature is predicted to go below freezing I will cover them with some agricultural fleece to get them through the night. Meanwhile the greenhouse is going great guns with lots of tiny seedlings growing on. It will take another four weeks or more for many of these very small seedlings to get to be big enough to transplant out into the garden but the temperatures will have warmed enough by then to accommodate them. The planters on the deck are full of pansies for now but in a few weeks they will get replaced with summer flowers such as lobelia, heliotrope, verbena, angelonia and cineraria.
Buds, buds, buds! Promises made by our plants. Clockwise from the top left: espaliered peach, forsythia, apricot, rhododendron, andromeda, Perry pear, and magnolia. As I sit here writing this blog this morning I can see the first daffodil blossom that has opened under our young northern spy apple tree. I looked up at the top of the computer screen and discovered that today is Thursday, April 9th. I hope it is a good day for all of you. Off to the gardens.
New Hampshire Gardening 