Today is officially the first day of spring, and it feels like it. The sun is shining brightly, the grass is greening, daffodils are blooming, and the March wind is blowing. Lots of perennials are starting to break through the soil and woody plants are budding. As much as I’d like to sit and observe the birds and plant activity, there is a lot to do around here.
Pepper and tomato seeds have been sown, and the peppers are sprouted. I’ll take a close look today to see if any one variety needs to be reseeded. Tomatoes were just seeded over the weekend, so they just need to be kept damp to encourage them to sprout. The fall planted garlic is up and looking great!
Microgreens have done really well this spring on the heated rack. There are two trays that will mature this week, and then we’ll have a short lull. Once the pepper and tomato plants get bigger and need to be potted, they will absolutely fill the racks, so microgreens will be paused at that time.
Cool crops have sprouted and will soon have their first true leaves. Once they are a bigger, these broccoli, mini broccoli, kale and red kale plants will be set out and covered to stay warm at night. The lettuce and spinach flats have been slow to do much, so they’re going to be moved to the small hoop house to see if that makes a difference. I’m SO ready for some great spring salads!
On these cool, windy days, it’s tough to get much trimming or cleanup type work done, so perennials are being divided and potted up. They’ll be rooted and ready for planting in May. Hopefully, we can find a way to dig and divide some of the ornamental grasses that need to be reduced and removed from the landscape.
The garden layout is finalized and now it’s time to plan on seeding dates for some herbs, annual flowers, and early vegetable crop starts (peas, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash). My annual math story problem still needs to be solved and double checked. “If I need 2″ of finished product on 40 beds of this size, 14 beds of anther size, 4 new beds of this size, how much material do I need? If that amount is correct, how much compost, peat, coconut coir, manure and composted chicken manure will be needed?” Once all the math is done, the “ingredients” will be ordered, mixed on the driveway and used to fill up the beds, amend planting areas, fill buckets for mini peppers, and to fill storage containers to have on hand all season. That’s when it gets real. And dirty. Hahaha!
There are jams on the shelves and a few are still on my list to make soon. We’ve also got dried herbs, chai latte mix, banana pepper rings, and seasoned salts on hand, too. Let me know if you want anything and we’ll coordinate. Happy first day of spring to all of you!