It’s April 1, and consistent with the day’s moniker I have planted my first seeds in the ground.
Around here I can expect my first frost-free 24hrs around the beginning of May, but it’s not unusual to have weather anomalies. Days may be below freezing, or they may creep into the high Celcius teens. Local wisdom is often quoted as saying not to plant out until after May 21, although experience has taught me that’s a little too conservative if I’d actually like a harvest before frost hits on the other end of the season.
A few days ago, in a frenzy of clearing last year’s weeds, I planted some climbing peas in the ground. I’ve done this before and gotten no time or yield gain whatsoever from my impatience, but it still scratched an itch to do it. Whenever I know I’m wish-planting I have a back up plan, and in this case I reserved most of my seeds to fill in the gaps or sow-anew.
This morning I put out three kinds of radishes, my yellow beets, and a bok choi seedling. I’ll sow the radishes every two weeks until early June, some more beets in 3 week intervals, and some more bok choi and other brassicas over the coming days. I like to space my early transplants out so if a squirrel or slugs find them and think they’re a tasty treat, hopefully they only get 1-2.
The seeds that I started inside about 10 days ago are doing as predicted. The tomatoes and peppers are slowly sprouting, the melons and squash are already looking like they’d prefer to be in the garden, but they somehow need to wait 6 weeks. Good thing that family transplants so well (they don’t!). There’s something comforting about making the same mistake every year, even knowing that I’m making it as it happens. Plants love to grow… for most of them, it will turn out fine despite me.
