A weather realted compromise!

Babies in the porch

It's cold and the weather man is calling for snow tomorrow night. Spring is such a struggle, old man winter doesn't want to let go and baby spring keeps pecking away at him! A quick look at the garden journal from 2010 shows the kind of weather that allowed the pepper starts to live outside each day with a trip into the porch for sleeping. This year the peppers are still in the newly expanded sprouting cave. A newly purchased portable greenhouse stands empty as the temperatures are too low at night to leave the tender babies out there at night. A check on the Farmer's Almanac indicates a cooler, wetter spring. What does it all mean?

The Growing Cave

Challenges for the home gardener, close watch of the weather and patience! Spring will come, and we will play outside in the dirt. Never fear, there are seeds that can be planted outside now, despite the chilly temperatures. For an early harvest plant the following cool loving crops: radish, lettuce, carrots, chard, beets, broccoli, cabbage, kale and onions. For those familiar with the walking onion, or Egyptian onion, you will notice how happy they are and the cool temperatures won't hurt them. Garlic sprouts should be happily shooting up now as well, if the cloves were planted in the fall, that is!

For some green therapy, check out your perennial herb garden. Even in Minnesota with the kind of winter we just lived through you should see some sprouts on the oregano, thyme, sage, hyssop, lambs quarters, wormwood and chives. I am constantly amazed in the spring when these little lovelies show up. Such tenacity!

What? Really, a leek!

A quick survey of the garden a couple of weeks ago yielded a few surprises! A garden bed that never got put away last fall (sheer laziness, no plan or thought behind leaving it!) contained a few leek and kale "bodies".  I tried to pull them out, thinking surely they didn't survive, but they were frozen solid into the dirt. Then of course I got busy with starting seeds and generally praying for some sunshine. Low and Behold...the leeks turned green and are very much alive. Huh. The allium family is hearty, but I never would have guessed they would survive! Looks like a bounty of leek seeds for this gardener this year!


So, never fear, the spring will come and the plants promise to amaze you! See you in "The Backyard"!

Is it time yet? Maybe yes, maybe no...

For the gardener, January is pure torture and delight! The seed catalogs show up and they have all these wonderful glossy pictures, filled with promises of "heavy yields" or "top producer", they promise resistance to drought or heat or cold or disease or infestation and they comfort the agitated gardener who looks upon the garden covered in a blanket of snow and can do nothing but think of spring. I have made my decisions, which as soon as the weather warms, I will abrubtly change I am sure. I have placed my orders, mixed up the starting medium, sanitized my pots and now I wait. Depending on your climate, it may be time to start seeds and get things started, but up here in Zone 4 we wait, or suffer the consequences. In fact for some plants I will wait 2 more months, for others I will wait just a few more weeks. As always, I am firmly on the heirloom side of vegetable gardening, they are true and proven, beautiful and delicious. Check out Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, IA (http://www.seedsavers.org/) for a complete run down on what they are doing to save our genetic seed heritage. The have started with heritage variety poultry and have some White Park Cattle, which I find to be about as beautiful as can be.

Here's a list of things that I start in February:
Chives, Marjoram, Oregano, Parsley, Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Peppers (hot and sweet), Onions, Shallots

Remember to use sterilized starting medium, be careful with the watering (bottom watering is best), and give the little planties some good old fashioned heat and light. Heat mats can be purchased, but heating pads or electric blankets seem to work just as well. No need to purchase the fancy "grow lights" I have had great luck with regular florescent lights (warm and cool to cover as much of the spectrum as possible).

Here's what I am dealing with these days:

Happy dreaming to you all!