The vegetable garden seeds were planted a bit over a week ago...two types of cucumbers, two zucchini varieties, melon, four kinds of beans, more parsley. Every day I check to see what will come up first, but the bottom line is that when it dips into the low 40s at night seeds just don't come up very quickly. I feel as though I'm on hold...this is not our typical spring weather and it confuses me. We had some nice weather, enough to get excited about planting the garden, but then we waited and waited for the nights to warm up so that we could actually do the planting. We finally had a few warm nights and it seemed like we were back on track...then it cooled down again. I'm not wanting to approach the record temperatures we've had in the past...102 degrees in May is not required. But having highs in the 60s is just too weird. And what exactly is up with the rain every few days? Not enough to totally stop watering...just enough to confuse the issue. Frequent rain is not a usual weather pattern here...no rain after the end of April is more common.
The tomatoes that went into the ground two weeks ago have caught up to the ones that were in the wall-o-waters for a month before that. However, I've had years where I was picking cherry tomatoes by the end of May...this year I'm hoping for the end of June. Peppers are in pots this year as half of my garden is planted in marigolds in the hopes of discouraging the root knot nematodes that have taken over. I've put basil in with one of the peppers and it is more or less maintaining...it just isn't warm enough for it to take off. Oh well...I imagine in a month or so I could be complaining about the heat. While we're enjoying favas, garlic scapes, carrots and chard I dream about tomatoes, peppers and fresh green beans. I'm reminded once again that gardening is a lesson in patience.
A garden angel watches over blooming salvias.
4 comments:
We're having the opposite here, Leslie. All of a sudden, we skipped spring and seemed to go right to summer! It's going to be in the 80s all week long, and everything needs to be watered constantly... ugh.
Do you suppose that halfway between us (somewhere in Kansas City, or maybe Iowa?) they are exactly at a happy medium? :)
Ditto Blackswamp Girl's weather here. Now it is hot. I just planted seeds in the garden on Sunday... they might come up quicker than yours! By the way, one of the squash varieties I'm growing is the one you sent me this winter. Thank you!
We've had a cold, wet slow-growing spring too - then this week temperatures shot up overnight and everything's now wilting in the heat. You can't win ...
Leslie, I empathize! I'd like a bit more of your type of weather and you'd like a bit more of mine, I suspect. Or maybe not ... it was 98 here today. On May 28th. That's so wrong.
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