Spring gardening

On a perfect spring afternoon, I was able to spend a couple of hours weeding, mulching, and transplanting lettuce, spinach, and radicchio seedlings. Tomorrow, I really need to pay attention to the meadow and perennial border, but the vegetables -- I guess they're pampered. They need attention, after all, being dependent on gardeners.

The tough meadow plants and native perennials in my borders don't need much attention -- just freeing them from the cloak of weedy winter annuals, too many leaves (from my gardening companion's raking efforts), and a bit of final tidying up of last year's stems.

Hmmm, clearly I take the 'don't be too tidy' prescription for good wildlife gardens to heart. My gardening companion says he's going to mow the 'lawn' tomorrow. It's gotten awfully shaggy, and if we didn't have (almost feral) neighborhood cats, we'd definitely have Eastern Cottontail nests in some of those grassy clumps.

A good day for planting

Trombocino squash last year

It was overcast all day, with some showery periods, and a forecast for more rain tonight. Perfect weather for transplanting and sowing seeds. I spent most of the day puttering in the garden, planting, digging, transplanting, with some weeding thrown in.

The soil temperature here is now about 70°F, so warm enough to sow seeds of cucumbers, squash, and beans. I put in heirloom Armenian yard-long cucumbers, trombocino squash, lagenaria squash (Lagenaria longissima- a new species to try), Ronde de Nice zucchini, Eight Ball zucchini (similar to Ronde de Nice, I think, but from a different seed company), patty pan squash (Johnny's 'Flying Saucer F1'), and scarlet runner beans.

For good measure, I also sowed some 'leftover' seeds in small pots to put on the germination mat: Toma Verde tomatillo, Corno di Toro peppers, "pizza" peppers (from two sources), a hybrid 'Italian Gourmet' pepper from Park Seed, and eggplant 'Listada de Gandia.' I also sowed more cucumbers, squash, and zucchini in pots, to rotate in, as space becomes available.

Seeds are such fun! I hadn't sown any warm season things earlier this year, as I've been busy with work-related things, and when I realized it was late to get any interesting plants via online ordering, thought I'd try some late seed starting. Our growing season is long enough that even warm-season veggies can produce by mid-summer, even if not started until now.

I transplanted some pretty lettuce seedlings that were part of a 'wild salad mix' -- I love the look of the 'speckled trout' or 'Freckles' lettuce and the soft textures of the butterhead lettuce.

I also managed to get in most of my purchased tomato and pepper plants - most from a horticultural student sale on campus, including some interesting heirlooms, but also some old standbys from the local nursery yesterday -- Better Boy and Beefsteak tomatoes.