A NEW SEASON OF GROWING (TAKE II)
I know, I know…. It’s been a LONG time since my last blog – May 2023 to be exact. I started with one post and just didn’t continue, not sure why? There’s a reason/season for everything, I guess. But now I have to catch up on 2 seasons of vegetable gardening plus new plans going forward. So, there’s plenty to write.
Perhaps the bear that broke the plum tree? Saw him in our neighborhood
It’s a good thing I have my garden journal to review so I can summarize the ups and downs. I’m actually almost done with this particular journal after 12 years of notes (I have another one lined up!).
Notice the crack in the main trunk!
Forgot to mention in the last blog of 5/23 that the fall of ’22 our plum tree got attacked by Ms Bear (photos). She split the main stem by pulling it down to get the fruit at the top even though there were plenty on the lower branches! There were over 20 pits on the ground from her feed. Since she came once (they always come back to a food source) we figured she would be back so I picked all the fruit that day to deter her and it worked. Luckily the fruit was pretty ripe. We had to splint the main stem with a piece of wood and wrapped it with plastic wrap. Good news is that the tree survived and in the spring of ’23 it did not produce fruit (which was good since the tree needed to heal from such a large wound). But spring ’24 it was healed and produced fruit!! Tree saved… Plum preserves made!
Lazuli Bunting Male
A great thing happened that spring on 5/22/23. We happened to be in the path of some very colorful migrating birds: a few Lazuli Bunting were hanging out on the back feeder and over 5 Western Tanagers at the front window seed block.
Western Tanager Male
I watched them for days with binoculars and then they were gone. I did not see them last year. We happened to be in their flight path that year. Hope it happens again, I’m looking out! Speaking of birds, I’m reading a book by Amy Tan called ‘The Backyard Bird Chronicles’:
Excerpt from book
She journals her observations of different birds in her backyard near San Francisco. Very interesting observations; she even had a hummingbird land on the palm of her hand! Amazing!! wish I could do that!
Ok back to the garden….
Spring spinach and green onions
So from the year before I had spinach and green onions that I started early fall and they wintered well for April/May crop, they love the cool weather. As soon as it gets hot the spinach will bolt (go to seed) and be done.
Tomatoes on top, peppers under
While those were growing, I started peppers at the end of March and tomatoes mid-April in the growing cells. This time I bought a set of 2 heating pads to speed up germination, it worked well; should have bought them sooner. I usually receive the starter sweet onions late March to early April – the growers send them out according to your growing zone (5). Those go in the ground as soon as I can work the soil; they direct you to plant them 4-6 wks before the last frost to stimulate root formation before they get to the bulb growth stage.
Bolting spinach plant from too much heat
They too, are very frost resistant, even after planting they tolerate snow. I also planted lettuce, wasabi arugula (really spicy leaf!), peas, snap peas, potatoes and more green onions. These are all cool weather plants.
All the peppers and tomatoes, zucchini, cabbage, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, beans were planted around the 24th of May, right before the holiday. The forecast looked promising for no frost. All the plants from indoors need to be hardened before planting (they have to get used to temperature fluctuations, wind and direct sun before planting) under row covers for 5-7 days before putting them in the ground and covered again at night to keep them from potential frost and to keep the temperature more stable. Everything survived the transition. The biggest bummer that spring was that the temperatures never got past 70 during the day until after the solstice. This delayed growth of all plants by 2-3 weeks. We have such a short growing season; I didn’t know how the harvest would pan out.
To Be Continued…..
