From this to that

Between basketball-watching marathons (I am a Hoosier, so it’s in my blood!) doing shows, and playing in my garden, there hasn’t been much time for the computer.  As I drive the long roads to and from shows, my mind does compose many blog posts, but by the time I actually get home, unload, water the plants, etc. sadly I’ve forgotten all those great ideas, topics, and phrases.  The giggle is that while I am on the road, the garden is happily growing.

Indoors, there are hundreds of individually potted seedlings growing under lights, plus a lot of new seeding flats.  The peppers all have their own pots now, and the tomatoes are nearly ready to pot. The earlier seedling group has all been moved into the greenhouse along with a small electric heater to keep it cozy at night.  Since I took the photo below, 6 flats of cole crop seedlings have joined the snapdragons, calendula, shasta daisies, Vintage stock, rudbeckias, hollyhocks, parsley, etc.  I’m going to have to add more benching soon.

In the potager, new seedlings push through the soil nearly every day. Onion sets (shown  at the very top of the page when they were newly planted on March 7) are already showing 2″green tips.  They are closely planted, with the intention of harvesting every other one as green onions, thus giving plenty of space for the remaining bulbs to mature into full-sized onions.  There are beds of white, yellow, and red sets.

Just in case you are wondering about the lines of black soil, I sprinkle newly planted seeds and bulbs with a good garden soil mix so the seeds can break ground more easily.  The black soil also absorbs heat on sunny days, which speeds germination, and it marks the rows that have been planted clearly, so this absent-minded gardener doesn’t mistakenly plant in an area that has already been seeded.  Yes, I’ve done that before without realizing it, until a jumble of this and that appears, and all of it unhappy and crowded.  This black soil trick really works for me, better than plastic markers or bamboo skewers, which I’ve seen suggested on other blogs.

Radishes that were used to help mark rows of slower-germinating crops (carrots, beets, lettuces, spinach, kales, mustards, turnips, chinese cabbage, kholrabi) are easy to spot.

The Black Seeded Simpson lettuce that I sprinkled throughout the interior east border is looking good.  Its job is to help hide the fading tulip foliage eventually with its wavy chartreuse leaves.  I’ll prick any crowded seedlings and move them wherever they are needed to camouflage.  Still no sign of the Wonderland poppies that were seeded at the same time.

Using a board to make straight rows, I planted eight pounds of shallot bulbs, mostly in diagonal rows in the center of the large squares to echo the diagonals of the fall-planted garlics, which are looking great.  I need to get the garlic mulched as soon as it is dry enough to get a load close.  The strawberry plants are changing, and the new “Seascape” plants that I ordered have been potted and are showing new growth.  They’ll go into beds as soon as the weather settles more.

This is the first planting of snow peas, “Little Purple,” which is a new variety for me.  They are now 3″ tall, and the second planting, “Mammoth Melting Pod,” is just breaking ground.   “Knight”peas are up, so I seeded the second crop of “Little Marvel”peas, and planted three varieties of potatoes.  I’m beginning to feel that I should have made the garden bigger!

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