2020 Garden Update: March 29

Thyme, thyme, thyme!

You might think I would have more time to post with COVID-19 keeping everyone at home right now, but planting season in garden waits for nothing. I've been outside every day planting, potting, and tending the flowers, herbs, and vegetables. It feels really good to have something productive to do and something to look forward to each morning.

We called ahead at our local garden center last week to make sure they were open and able to maintain good social distancing measures before we made a trip over there to stock up on plants. With a dozen greenhouses and lots of outdoor paths we had no trouble keeping our distance from other patrons, and we tried to make sure that we bought everything we'll want for quite some time to come. I'm glad that we could support our independent nursery in spite of everything going on. Normally I would be in there constantly this time of year! We bought thyme, basil, a cucumber start, a gorgeous fern for the porch, a succulent pot, and quite a few plants for the flower beds.

Cucumber seedlings Take 2.

Back at the house things are really growing and settling into spring. The Lady Banks rose produced its first blooms, a great sign after the stress of moving it in the fall. The green peas are shooting up, the lettuce is going gang busters, and the tomato plants are all thriving so far. The squash and zucchini are doing well, too, and the pollinator beds are full of tiny sprouts. I started several new cucumber pots after the disappointment with my first round; this time I started some of the tried and true Salad Slicer seeds as well as the fancy ones I got from Baker Creek. I hope I will have better luck with them this time, but I also have the Lemon Cucumber start from the nursery as a backup. I might be drowning in cucumbers in a couple of weeks, but I'm sure I can find homes for them!

Our gladiolus order from Holland Bulb Farms also arrived last week, so we now have 70 glads planted in the front and back beds. I can't wait to see how the flower beds look this summer; we've got daylilies, lilies, glads, and liatris ready to take over from the daffodils and tulips. The shade beds are also filling in nicely, with the astilbe doing especially well and the hostas and ferns coming along, too. Eventually I should dig the monkey grass out of those beds, but I wanted to make sure other plants would actually grow there first.

Lettuce, green peas, and squash.

One of the challenges this year is a robust slug population. I never had any trouble with slugs at the old house, but a nightly slug hunt has become part of my routine lately. I use a cup of soapy water and a flashlight to hunt them on the raised beds and pots. They almost devoured my original basil plants before I figured out what was happening, but now I move the basil out of slug reach each night, and the plants are recovering.

Many of my intended garden projects will have to wait for summer or next spring, but even in the midst of the pandemic there is plenty to do right now. I started gardening as a response to anxiety, and I'm really glad to have this outlet now as we cope with such a massive crisis. I hope you are also keeping busy and managing to get some fresh air while staying safe!

2020 Garden Update: March 10

We've had warm, wet weather recently, and the forecast suggests that spring is really on its way now, with highs in the 70s and no lows below 50 in the near future. Everything in the garden says, "Spring! Spring!" Meanwhile, the first plants for the season are turning up at the local garden center, but for now I'm sticking with the cold hardy selections that can handle a few more cold nights if we get them.

The lettuce is doing very well, and last night we actually got to eat some of it because it was time to thin the micro greens and make room for remaining heads to grow to full size. The green peas are also shooting up, and they'll probably need their trellis to go up this weekend. I'm trying to err on the side of caution where my squash and tomato seedlings are concerned, but they are hardening off in their Jiffy pots and starting to look like proper plants.

As we head into mid March I'm definitely getting excited about the season ahead with the new garden. We have been bringing in bags of soil over the last few weeks and getting the raised beds ready for planting. The daffodils are blooming profusely, and we even got several more after a neighbor secured permission for us to remove them from the empty lot across the street (construction there would have buried them under concrete in the next few weeks). I'm eager to see how the garden will look come summer!

Sadly, my cucumber seedlings wilted, leaving me with just one Dragon's Egg seedling. I'll try again with the Salad Slicer from last year, which never had any wilting issues, but I'm disappointed to have lost all of the DAR Cucumber seedlings so early. The tomatoes probably need potting on to get their stems buried, but so far all of them are doing quite well. The squash, though, are practically begging to go in the ground! They'll have to wait a little longer; I don't want to lose any to a last-minute frost.

In the flower beds we've added some sedum, a couple of creeping phlox, and the rescued daffodils. We've got more daylilies and a big order of gladiolus coming soon. We managed to get the crepe myrtle removed from the front bed, as well, creating a nice big space for more planting. (It was too close to the house and had to go - why do builders always put trees too close to the house?)

This part of March is all about anticipation and restraint. It's so tempting to get out there and plant everything the first warm week, but we know that March is fickle! Once April arrives, we can really get cracking.