The end of winter is a fairly dismal place in a garden although the peas are still going strong. I think the problem is that we have such goofy winters- we can get into the seventies for weeks but then go back to highs in the fifties. With the occasional freezing night. Not that I am complaining from my standpoint, but I do think the plants get very confused. And we had to water while we were gone since it never rained in January or February!
While we were gone, Matt, Jenny and Max came to check on the house and garden several times. They were able to finish the lettuces and broccoli before they bolted. And they gathered pounds of snow and snap peas. But the Brussel sprouts take so long to grow that they barely got to pea size before they bolted. The garlic looks great, the flowers are blooming and the snap peas are still coming on strong. Edna picked the last of last summer’s carrots while she was here. My tulips from last year came up and the other bulbs are growing. We did get to see some of the daffodils and hyacinths bloom before we left but most of those bloomed while we were gone. We are going to have so many irises this year. They have beautiful leaves growing and a few are starting to send up blooms. They haven’t opened yet. I also planted 75 gladiolus bulbs last week but they may not bloom this year. We will find out if the deer eat them. I guess luckily, deer do not eat irises. The tulips have to be in the garden because the deer really appreciate it when you plant their breakfast for them!
The other funny thing this week is that I tried throwing a few sprouting spuds in the ground later last summer, right before we left for Yellowstone and that 6 week trip. Plants came up looked great and then when the water system failed for a week in September they died back. Lori S suggested that I leave them in the ground and see if there was enough potato to start new plants this year. I poked around in the ground when we first returned and saw nothing. Last week I decided to try again with some potatoes we forgot to take (very sprouted!). Yesterday I went to dig in fresh soil in that area and found a bunch of spuds, some even real sized. They were pretty deep in the soil and look just like Yukon Gold spuds from the store! Some were pretty little, and I cut two in half with the shovel, but now we have fresh potatoes from the garden to go with our peas! That was fun. I refreshed the soil and planted more yesterday.
I planted a lot of new veggies this past week- summer squash, watermelon, a sprouted onion, the gladiolus bulbs, carrots and green beans. I am going to get some plants from Lori later today. She has a greenhouse and apparently everything she started is growing and she has too many for her garden. I also started some corn in peat pots so I can hopefully harvest them before the wedding! I should be able to transplant them next week. This way I can move them inside so they don’t get cold at night.
It is great to be home and working in the garden again. I also refilled all my hanging planters since they froze while we were away. Retail therapy at Green Acres is awesome!😉