Today in the Garden: May 3, 2012

Cool Season Crops...getting warmer

It is HOT, HOT, HOT around here. Mr. T's car recorded 93 on his drive home from Charlotte yesterday, and I wouldn't be too surprised to hear a higher number when he gets in from Raleigh in a bit. [Missy M called in a 97 from Louisville as she was driving her hybrid home...or rather as she was sweltering while sitting at a stoplight, when her AC clicks off...a downside to going green...:)] People: it is only the third day of May! What in the world will August be like?!?

The unusually hot weather ...unaccompanied by any significant rainfall...means that the greens (phone, left) will soon show signs of suffering. So, I grabbed my new hod (a gift to myself from myself, purchased online from Gardeners Supply) and some snippers, and headed to the spinach and leaf lettuces to give them seasonal crew cuts. I also snipped some broccoli for good measure.

All of these (plus the cabbages, beets, and carrots) are considered "cool season crops." You plant them in the late Winter or early Spring (and again in early August for a Fall crop), and they are typically vacating their real estate by the time you are looking for some more space to put Lima beans or purple hulled peas (to name a couple of "warm season crops"). When the temps ratchet up, the spinach will bolt...or send up flower stalks and turn bitter-tasting. As neither are good candidates for the freezer (well, you CAN freeze spinach, but it isn't one of my favs), you will have to harvest as much as you can...and start giving some of the bounty away. (I carried some of this morning's harvest next door, and my neighbor reciprocated with a quart of strawberries he got at the Triad Farmers Market...yum!)

I also ran up the water bill as everything looked a little droopy, from the roses to the fruit trees to the tomatoes and peppers. Some places have soaker hoses (like the Rose Garden), and some places I used the hand-held sprayer. I gave the greens a good soaking spray as they were looking a bit sparse after I had harvested. I noticed that the early sweet corn has germinated under the row covers (which will stay in place for at least another week or two to protect the tiny plants from our army of crows), so I watered it, too. Getting a good soak from a soaker hose were the newly-sprouted pole beans along the bean fence, as well as the squash, melons, and cukes...all showing signs of new life along the pea fence (which is smaller and shorter than what we call the bean fence..and which didn't get installed until it was too late to plant peas...so it will serve to support other vining crops). It's all looking good!

Speaking of looking good...we noticed on our Morning Coffee Walk that many, if not most, of the new David Austin English roses have buds on them! Now that's cause for celebration around here. Hip hip hooray!!!

Two things I need to take care of:
1. Get a new wheeled hose reel. The one I have has a leak at the connection; not fixable I don't believe.
2. Figure out how to get water to all the trees in the Orchard. I can't reach the ones in the last row...and we have a new apple tree that's replacing one we lost back there.

I'll give it some thought, and report back to you.

Until then, happy hoeing!