A Gardener's Diary

[Monksdream]

April 2-The early days of April in Zone 7b are like the entire month of March. In like a lion in the morning, out like a lamb in the afternoon. It was like this morning. A chilly north wind, temperature around 45. Just enough to remind me of winter weather. The greenhouse makes the chilly mornings enjoyable. Drinking a coffee while up potting seedlings. Watering each one. Checking for progress in their growth. I noticed two basil plants had emerged from the newspaper cups I placed in those salad containers I got from the Harris Teeter. I will replace those two with more cups Monday morning.

When it became tolerable to work outside, I resumed work on the cippolini onion bed. After raking up the soil with the added compost I removed most of the trash and made depressions with a piece of one inch aluminum pipe. Five rows in all. I spent most of the day placing those little black kernels in the rows interspersed with sowing more radish, beet, spinach and carrot seeds in the big bed. Some spinach and radish have emerged. Beets and carrots are a little slower to germinate, if they do at all.

I dug out watermelon bed #10, and filled it to level. I'll finish tomorrow morning after I return from the Dollar General with more potting soil. The greenhouse shelves will soon be covered in trays with pepper plants, probably close to 130.