~SUSTAINABLE LIVING FOR CHALLENGING TIMES

[sumisu]

GARDEN UPDATE - 04 24 2015


April can be a varied weather month; it can be very warm to very cold. The heater went on this morning in my chilly house, so you know where I'm going with this message. Wednesday I began transplanting tomato and marigold into larger containers for planting in late May. Yesterday, for the most part, was overcast, very cool and the west northwest winds were cutting.



So far my concern that I planted my cold crops too late was bailed out by Mother Nature. The garlic looks robust and loves the cool weather and the steady rains from earlier in the week.

The forecast: "Today - Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High 56*F (13.3*C). Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph (16.1 to 32.2 kph). Tonight - Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 35*F (1.7 °C). Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph (16.1 to 32.2 kph)."

Sunrise was 5:50AM and it will set at 7:36PM. The moon is in its waxing crescent.

I thought two of my cold crop beds were completely planted, but MaMa of the young Chinese couple rang my doorbell showing me a packet of YUI XI seeds; it looks like Chinese broccoli. She motioned for a rake and I handed her a rake with a short handle. She proceeded to scratch in open areas of the cold crop beds, lightly sprinkle seeds, and then watered them with rain barrel water. I said "xie xie" [thank you] and she responded "bu ke ki" [you're welcome]; now I'm learning some Chinese and she is learning English.

Coincidentally Earth Day was this past week and my next door Chinese neighbor, under my direction, planted 11 evergreen shrubs; these should hide the highway in front of her house after full growth. The job was difficult due to the roots and large roots for digging the holes. The shrubs were root bound and dry, so I showed her how to loosen the root ball and I soaked the root part of each plant in a container of water with a root growing stimulant. Just digging a hole and dropping the shrub into it would most likely eventually yield a brown shrub due to inadequate root growth. Luckily I had bags of mulch on hand to surround the shrubs to retain moisture.



I gave a lot of attention to my raspberry plants too. I cut out all of the dead canes from the plants closely to the ground. Ideally, early March would have been a better time for this activity, but the raspberry plants were completely covered by snow then [I still cannot believe last winter].



A gifted Victory rhubarb plant finally pushed its way through the ground. I transplanted this plant on to my neighbor's property, she fell in love with its beauty, and I will not yet divide it to make other plants. I will deal with it next year. Too many other things to do first.