What’s Happening in the Garden

“Yes, the Lord pours down His blessings. Our land will yield its bountiful harvest.” Psalms 85:12

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE GARDEN

February 9

The vegetables we planted out back in January - onions, garlic, and leeks - came through the recent cold spell and freezing rain just fine. The bad news - our water connection didn't. The good news - somebody fixed it! As the asparagus roots I bought earlier were beginning to sprout, I planted them into their permanent deep beds at the west side of the garden last week. Some early spring peas planted in January may not have made it through the freeze, so I planted some indoors to put into the cold frame Jim is building. The broccoli, cabbage, carrots, collards, kale and spinach (see foto) are more than ready to go to the cold frame to be "hardened off" for a week or so before planting out. We are still working on row covers for the tender seedlings

February 18 will be our next work day. The seed potatoes will be ready to go in the ground, as well as broccoli and cabbage plants, and maybe the kale. More spinach, peas, radishes and turnips can be sown directly into the beds, also. Weather will be in mid-50's, so shouldn't be too uncomfortable. Chopping up the baled straw (leftover from Christmas) with a lawnmower has made some nice mulch, so having some help with that task should let us cover the rest of the beds. (A layer of mulch protects the microbes in the soil during freezing weather, but will need to be raked aside when it's time to plant to let the soil warm up.) I will send out a text message to the current volunteers early next week with more info.

We are hopeful that next year (when we have all of the beds, row covers, compost bins and a good cold frame in place), we will be able to maintain a tighter planting schedule. We're just grateful to God for all the progress we have made in the past year.

We left the entire garden uncovered last week during the ice storm as a test of the varieties we had planted out in the raised beds. The temperature got down to the mid-20's, but didn't seem to affect the rutabagas (swedes), carrots, onions or leeks. Cabbage is gone, however. (The cold spell at Christmas was more severe, so all of the plants were covered in frost cloth while the temperatures were in the teens.) Compost and the chopped straw much has been added to all the beds, so they are ready to plant.

This week indoors, I planted tomatoes (early varieties), lettuce, pak choi (small relative of bok choy), and more spring peas. Later this month, I will be planting (indoors in trays), more tomato varieties and swiss chard. I have been working on a spreadsheet of what varieties to plant when, and can share that with you, if you're interested.