Weather I’ve been Waiting For
I always have a nursery area in the garden, space where I can grow out cuttings and put new plants until I decide where they will go in the borders. When we first moved here I made a nursery area in a space that was not suited for this. The plants did OK, but the soil was terrible and it was in an inconvenient location for watering. The results were terrible, invasive weeds started taking over, some plants dried up and died, the rest languished. I’ve been needing to move all the plants, but have been waiting for the perfect weather.
Whenever I need to transplant things, I try to wait for the perfect window of weather. That means lots of rain and cooler days. Plants are much less stressed with this type of weather and I have found that I rarely lose a transplant when I wait for the right weather window.
After an extremely dry spring, yesterday was the day to make the big move. I dug up and transplanted over 30 shrubs, trees, and perennials. It was lots of work, but I know they will bounce back quickly because of the rain and cooler weather. Luckily, we’re supposed to get an inch of rain overnight which will water everything in well. Even if you can wait for one rainy, overcast day that will give you plants a bit of a reprieve during transplant and help them make it.
Do you have any tips for transplanting success?
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Succession Planting
This year I’m working on improving my succession planting success. I.E., I’m actually doing it. I’ve always struggled with remembering to seed plants every few weeks, mostly I forget as I’m out working in the garden. This year I’m already on my fourth flat of lettuce, my third batch of bulbing fennel, my second planting of cilantro, and there are more.
Yesterday I spent time seeding more flats of flowers and vegetables, most of them were a succession planting, some were heat loving varieties that are being seeded for the first time.
As I was looking through my seeds, I realized that I should organize the things that need seeded multiple times into their own box. Possibly even organized into folders depending on how often they need seeded. As I work I’ve been mulling over a workflow that will help make succession planting easier for me to do.
Do you succession plant? Do you have any tips/tricks for organization?
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Planting Tomatoes in Mustard
Last week we traveled to Ohio to visit family and friends. That meant that two weeks ago I was madly planting all my trays of seedlings and hoping we’d get rain while we were gone. Even though our last frost date wasn’t past, I had to plant my tomatoes and peppers. The area I’m using for them this year is a second season bed. Pigs worked up the soil two summers ago and last summer I planted it in a variety of cover crops. This spring I seeded it with mustard to fumigate the soil in preparation for nightshade crops.
The mustard was only a few inches tall when I planted my tomatoes and peppers, so I just pulled up a small circle and planted the tomatoes directly into the cover crop.
When I arrived home, the mustard had grown and was starting to flower, most of it was about a foot tall. The tomatoes and peppers were still growing slowly inside their sheltered growing areas. The mustard would have given them a small amount of protection from a late frost if we had had one.
Yesterday I pulled the mustard and simply laid it around the tomatoes and peppers as a mulch. When it dries I’ll cover it with a layer of compost which will protect the soil, feed the crops throughout the summer, and maintain moisture throughout the heat of summer. The mustard is said to help fumigate the soil of pathogens, particularly those that affect nightshade crops. I also seeded it in the area that I will be planting my potatoes. I’ve been doing this for years and it seems to be working well for me. Mustard it probably my favorite cover crop, I use it all the time.
What’s your favorite cover crop?
