Rain, rain....

The rain hasn’t let up much this month and I haven’t been in the garden as much as I would have liked, but it seems that the garden hasn’t really missed me. It has taken care of itself just fine. The rain and warmer evenings have provided conditions that seem to have made everyone’s gardens green and lush.

My vegetable bed is flourishing with tall Catskill brussels sprouts, gray-green Romanesco broccoli, and rich purple Tete Noir cabbages. The Marketter cucumber plants are short still, but getting quite bushy. Last weekend was sunny, warm and ideal for finally getting all of my tomato plants and eggplants in the garden. This is my first year growing sauce or paste tomatoes and I chose a heirloom variety called Polish Linguisa. So far the plants look healthy enough, if not a little delicate next to my other varieties. My favorite, the Black Krim tomatoes, have thick, stocky stems and an abundance of dark green foliage that would make most other tomato plants seem a little anemic, so I am not too worried about Polish Linguisa’s just yet.

The one pumpkin plant that I am growing this year, called Snack Jack (a small variety with little flesh but has a large amount of seeds that have no shell), has already been trellised and is growing quickly upward. The Slenderette bush beans are loaded with flower buds and the purple Vienna kohlrabi’s have doubled their size just this passed week.

I think it may still be a bit cool for the Black Tail watermelons and Little Sweety cantelopes as they look healthy, but haven’t done much growing since they were planted out. It is my first time growing melons as well. Something about the curcurbit family has always seemed very challenging to me. I find that they are susceptible to so many pests and diseases that trying to keep them healthy but still organic is an uphill battle, but it won’t stop me from trying. There’s more to gain than lose.

The tiny Petunia plants I started are looking like real, normal sized plants now, but aren’t quite ready to leave the protection of the green house. The marigolds and nasturtiums, on the other hand , were outgrowing their pots. I planted the King Theodore nasturtiums in a container for the back patio garden over the weekend, and this passed Wednesday after work, I planted the Sun Splash and Disco Mix marigolds around the Autumn Cherry tree in the front of the house.

There is so much blooming right now, it’s hard to let my eye rest in any one spot in the yard. The columbines and pyracantha are in full bloom. The standard bearded irises are loaded with buds and just beginning to flower. Clematis have begun their long season of blooming, and the blackberry, blueberry and gooseberry flowers will soon bring sweet fruit. The buds on the Snowbell are fat and ready to burst open in all of their glory any day now. I can hardly wait.

April Showers…

April showers have indeed brought May flowers, and from the amount of rain we got in April, we should see a heck of a lot of flowers this month. Even with rain almost every day, I still managed to get some good work done. The flower beds have been cleaned up and are weed free and topped with a layer of double shredded hardwood mulch. Trees and shrubs were transplanted. Once the vegetable garden got a dose of compost, the snowpeas, bush beans, beets, cabbages, brussel sprouts, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower were put in and are doing nicely.

I’ve also started my annual flower seeds indoors and they are coming up surprisingly quickly. This year I am trying my hand at growing petunias from seed. I wasn’t too sure how that was going to work out. When I opened the packet and saw how tiny the seeds were (they look like grains of fine sand) I was a little skeptical that I would be able to get them to germinate, but a few days later, I had the smallest sprouts I had ever seen and they are continuing to grow ever so slightly bigger and stronger each day.

Outside, my dwarf irises are taking off. Colors ranging from pale blue, deep purple, bright yellow, soft peach to baby pink are all in bloom. It’s a beautiful site from my kitchen window and makes doing the dishes less of a chore. The Japanese Snowbell (styrax japonica) that I planted 2 years ago finally has flower buds for the first time and I couldn’t be more excited. The first time I saw a picture of a snowbell, I knew someday I had to have one. Zone 6a, which is the hardiness zone I am in now, is just barely warm enough for this particular tree, so it requires a little babying to keep it happy. The first time I tried planting one, it was hit by a late frost and it never recovered. My current snowbell gets wrapped in burlap if there is any chance at all of frost once the leaves have opened. Lesson learned.

The garden is always in flux and nothing stays the same for very long. The Autumn and Yoshino Cherry trees are done blooming, and tulips, fritillaria, and daffodils are dying back to make room for columbine and daylilies. Asiatic lilies and hardly gladiolas grow taller, and the pyracantha is getting ready to bloom. The glorious rainbow of dwarf irises will be gone soon, and something else will come into bloom to steal the show. Everyday in the garden is something new and wonderful but it never lasts long, so take time and enjoy every bit of it.