Did I set out my spring crops too early?
With the spring garden,
I plant by feel rather than by spreadsheet. So when the weather turned
warm and wet for a week at the end of March, I set out a lot of things
that likely shouldn't really have been planted then. Of course, then
last week's cold spell hit (mid twenties and a couple of inches of
snow), which left me scurrying to cover everything up and hope my
babies would survive.
Now's the moment of
truth --- did I make a mistake? On the broccoli front, I probably would
have been better off waiting. None of the outside plants were damaged
badly enough to need to be replaced when I gave them a once-over
yesterday, but they were also significantly smaller than the ones still
in a flat inside. I set out another couple of beds with reserved plants
and will be curious to see which planting date leads to the earliest
and best heads.
On the other hand,
lettuce, thyme, parsley, and peas also transplanted on March 27 passed
the cold-weather test with flying colors (although the row-cover fabric
I had over them until this week certainly helped).
And how about the
direct-seeded vegetables? They look pleased as punch now that their row
cover is off and they're once again exposed to full sun. Soon we'll be
rolling in lettuce and peas!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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