The predictions are that today will hit 80F along with the next couple of days. Monday for us is a state holiday. Patriot's Day. It is the day that the Boston Marathon is run. I feel really sorry for them. The predictions are 88F. In April. I still can't wrap my head around the weather we have had. I need to plant my lettuce, but decided that it wold be best to wait until Wednesday when it cools down a tad. Today I'll bring the plants inside out of the sun. I don't want to be in that weather either. So I decided to get most of my chores done yesterday.
The first chore was to plant some seed. I prepped the rest of the pea bed before planting. It is also the bed for the random plants, mostly greens and annual herbs. Though they aren't getting planted yet, I did plant a 3' double row of beets. Then behind my chamomile I planted some zinnia seed. And behind the cilantro I planted some sunflowers.
Cilantro trimmed off before removing the roots
The main cilantro bed had to be prepped first. The main part of that was taking out a ton of cilantro. I was leaving just a strip to go to seed. The area behind that I wanted to be sunflowers and some new cilantro. I planted the sunflowers, but I figured there was still enough cilantro seed in that bed that just turning over the soil would make it sprout. I hope so. I'll keep all of these places that I seeded well watered over the next few days.
Then it was time to plant the asparagus. It showed up in the mail late Friday. I like to plant live things from the mail as quickly as possible. The package had 11 plants. I tried to pick the best nine of them. Last year I planted 22 plants but six of them died and three of them were females. So these are the replacements. I'm just crossing my fingers that there are no females, but I'm guessing there is at least one in there. And some may die again too. So I may have to go through this again next year.
I have a short list of chores that need to get done. Thin and transplant the baby Asian greens bed, plant the lettuce, plant the cosmos, divide and plant the dianthus along the path, find a place for the extra thymes and plant, get some kind of support up for the raspberries. But those will all wait until after the heat wave is over. During I'll just make sure things are well watered.
How do you tell from the asparagus crown it's male/female? I bought (supposedly) all male crowns, it turns out some are female (I think) because they set seeds in the fall. I might have to redo my asparagus bed again next year.
ReplyDeleteHi! Crazy weather all over! My peas and turnips are doing well but the beets do not look good. I have tried about three times to grow beets and don't seem to do well. Is there a secret? If not, I may give up on growing that veggie! I also ordered male asparagus but think one turned out to be female as it had red berries on it last fall. I left it. Should I have dug it up? Thanks. Nancy at Cozy Thyme Cottage
ReplyDeleteMost people don't bother to dig them up. It just won't produce quite as well as the males.
DeleteI have so many things to get done around our place and we finally got some rain! It was good to have the rain but it rained all day Saturday and now the beds are too wet to plant so it was a wasted weekend. :(
ReplyDeleteWhistle while you work! You're definitely staying busy, with all the best things. We planted lettuce this week. I hope the heat doesn't kill it. The chickens are bad enough...those scratch monsters! We planted asparagus seeds from MTG, Mary Washington variety. They are doing very well in blocks, but we've got to get them out soon. I guess if it's not to early for you, then we'll be safe too. Although I am a feeling a bit apprehensive about putting ours out because they are only 2 inches tall, and their root base is small enough to still fit inside a soil block.
ReplyDeleteHoly Cow! 88 degrees in April? That is just insane. It must be very difficult to manage the roller coaster ride of temperatures. I hope the plants stay calm and don't bolt to seed as a result of it.
ReplyDeleteYou are really getting alot done in your garden - at least your weather has allowed you a lot of opportunities to get the spring planting done timely.
We usually get a burst of heat in May, but I'm hoping to get through the next week or two without losing a lot of the little plants. Hop your seeds go well.
ReplyDeleteDo you start most of your lettuce inside or direct seed? Where did you get your asparagus from? Mine also died and all of my local sources are out.
ReplyDeleteThe lettuce I'm not planting was started inside. I'll put it out on Wednesday as it will be the first cooler day. I got my asparagus from Pinetree.
DeleteDo you find that asparagus is easy to grow? I've always hesitated because it takes several years, and of course now that we've been in this house several years I wish I'd done it at the beginning...
ReplyDeleteNot sure. Give me a few years. I put the first of it in last year. So I'm not sure all the problems that may or may not happen.
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