Digging and Seeding

Stark sent me an email saying that my trees (plum, apple, and persimmon) were being shipped. They are supposed to arrive today. I wanted to get their planting area ready and Wednesday the rain was on and off. I picked an off time to go out. The first order of business was to take down the figs. Then remove the trellis. I left the eye screws in the fence as they might be useful in training the trees. The metal bar at the bottom however was sunk into the soil. It took some serious work to get out. Yesterday my fitbit told me that I didn't get my exercise. It lies. All told I got an hour and a half of work. And some of it heavy work. But the figs and trellis are now gone.

I also started to remove the old European plum. I got partway there. It is cut down to a stump, but today I'll have to go out and remove the stump. The trellis for this one is staying. I'm going to espalier an apple tree here. I will have to figure out how far apart I want the wires though. Currently they are 6" which is too close for an apple tree. I'm thinking four cordons 18" apart.

Thursday was yet another cold rainy day. So I decided I needed to get my indoor planting done. First up was the rooted slips of Garnet sweet potato. I had let the roots get a tad long, but I'm not going to be planting the whole plant. Come May I'll take cuttings from the plant and root those in water again.

I put them in 4" pots and put them under the lights. I'll move them to the sun later. If we ever see the sun again. I hate dreary days.

I was behind in seeding some of my plants. My schedule said April 3rd. It was almost a week late. But I got in another round of baby Asian greens, some Brussels sprouts, basil, and a mix of Zinnias. I also made some blocks for later in little tiny containers. I'm going to be sowing six lettuce plants every three weeks. I'll see if I can keep it up all summer long or not. It helps to have premade blocks to make it faster.

One of three trays

The seedlings that were sowed on March 25th are growing well except the choy sum on the right. Some didn't even germinate from the new seed this year. The older seed did better. But I'll plant what did come up. Choy sum is such a pain to grow, but I keep trying because when it works, it is so good. It is one of my favorites of the Asian greens.

I'll be hardening these plants off starting today once it warms up a bit. Our forecast is good with temperatures in the low 50Fs and into the high 60Fs for the coming week (which would bee teens for the Celsius fans).