Flash
This month is flying by.
The grain is up, I got the cabbages (heading and leafing) planted yesterday, today I'd like to do potatoes and brussels sprouts.
The first couple buds showed up on my tomatoes a week ago - sweet cheriette and bloody butcher specifically -- and a couple more have manifested by now, especially on exserted orange. I may come back and edit a couple more names in here upon inspection. Outside the haskaps are blooming (the ones in-ground and some of the ones on the deck, blue banana was the first and keeps attracting hummingbirds) and the apple buds are still closed but present.
I'm really enjoying the diversity of tomato growth. Silvery fir tree ("fern") foliage, potato, and regular leaf are just the start of it. The hearts have that twisty downwards-pointing growth habit ("wispy") and there's definitely a deeper blue-green with slight furring on at least one dwarf (probably rugose foliage?) but aside from that there's such variation in how deeply the regular leaves are cut, the particular shapes of the potato leaves, the ability to uptake nitrogen in the cold (so basically how yellow they are, rozovaya bella seems to be the champ at cold-weather nitrogen uptake while silvery fir tree and the lofthouse tomatoes were worse), plant growth habits, and scents.
Cucumbers have their first leaves and are starting on their second, squashes are still sizing up their first leaf, as are melons. The eggplants complain so much about being out in the cold (during the day!) that I'm just keeping them inside for now, I suspect they shouldn't be on the list for next year. It's too cold for okra here too but I have a landrace mix from Afghanistan so maybe one will be high-elevation enough to accept a cooler day? I love okra so much and I'm always disappointed I don't live somewhere warmer for it.
I put strawberries in the greenhouse, I'll plant the artichokes into them (there's also lettuce and short-season broccoli in that bed). I put poppies in with the grains. Still to go: kale (have starts, maybe need to do some fencing), carrots, turnips, swiss chard. Then June 1: tomatoes go out, as do tomatillos and ground cherries and after another week squash and melons and cukes and peppers. Corn and beans go into the ground. I'll start hardening the squash the next rainy day we have.
The geese are keeping the grass in the back field at 3-4cm, which is about right, and everyone is broody. Today I discovered a nest under the cardboard in the front A-frame, it's close to where Snowblower Duck hatched her nest out last year so it's probably either her or Chocolate. That's a useful lineage of duck, good at foraging, hardy, and they make more of themselves. They're some sort of mix, though, and I don't know of what. The mama/papa Pomeranian goslings are distinctly goose-shaped but still fluffy orange and miniature, very very cute.
This year I'm keeping pretty good records so far. I'm 1) hoping that continues and 2) hoping to do so next year too. It's all going so so fast, though. Time is weird.
The grain is up, I got the cabbages (heading and leafing) planted yesterday, today I'd like to do potatoes and brussels sprouts.
The first couple buds showed up on my tomatoes a week ago - sweet cheriette and bloody butcher specifically -- and a couple more have manifested by now, especially on exserted orange. I may come back and edit a couple more names in here upon inspection. Outside the haskaps are blooming (the ones in-ground and some of the ones on the deck, blue banana was the first and keeps attracting hummingbirds) and the apple buds are still closed but present.
I'm really enjoying the diversity of tomato growth. Silvery fir tree ("fern") foliage, potato, and regular leaf are just the start of it. The hearts have that twisty downwards-pointing growth habit ("wispy") and there's definitely a deeper blue-green with slight furring on at least one dwarf (probably rugose foliage?) but aside from that there's such variation in how deeply the regular leaves are cut, the particular shapes of the potato leaves, the ability to uptake nitrogen in the cold (so basically how yellow they are, rozovaya bella seems to be the champ at cold-weather nitrogen uptake while silvery fir tree and the lofthouse tomatoes were worse), plant growth habits, and scents.
Cucumbers have their first leaves and are starting on their second, squashes are still sizing up their first leaf, as are melons. The eggplants complain so much about being out in the cold (during the day!) that I'm just keeping them inside for now, I suspect they shouldn't be on the list for next year. It's too cold for okra here too but I have a landrace mix from Afghanistan so maybe one will be high-elevation enough to accept a cooler day? I love okra so much and I'm always disappointed I don't live somewhere warmer for it.
I put strawberries in the greenhouse, I'll plant the artichokes into them (there's also lettuce and short-season broccoli in that bed). I put poppies in with the grains. Still to go: kale (have starts, maybe need to do some fencing), carrots, turnips, swiss chard. Then June 1: tomatoes go out, as do tomatillos and ground cherries and after another week squash and melons and cukes and peppers. Corn and beans go into the ground. I'll start hardening the squash the next rainy day we have.
The geese are keeping the grass in the back field at 3-4cm, which is about right, and everyone is broody. Today I discovered a nest under the cardboard in the front A-frame, it's close to where Snowblower Duck hatched her nest out last year so it's probably either her or Chocolate. That's a useful lineage of duck, good at foraging, hardy, and they make more of themselves. They're some sort of mix, though, and I don't know of what. The mama/papa Pomeranian goslings are distinctly goose-shaped but still fluffy orange and miniature, very very cute.
This year I'm keeping pretty good records so far. I'm 1) hoping that continues and 2) hoping to do so next year too. It's all going so so fast, though. Time is weird.