Late May Day

This May has been unusually cool, cloudy and rainy. A freeze blackened the potato plants and killed most of the gooseberry blossoms. It may have ruined the apple blossoms, too, but I haven’t been to the pasture to check.

Today is cool, more like Colorado than Kansas, just 69 degrees. Pam, our yard and garden helper, is lining the garden fence with wood mulch to keep out weeds and grass. I’ve been wandering around outside, looking and taking photos.

I started in the garden. I’m happy that seed starting has moved into Phase 4; tomatoes, sweet potatoes, basil and parsley are in the ground. They don’t show up in this photo, which is dominated by onions, garlic, shallots, broccoli, cauliflower, and, in the far right, the potatoes, which have started new growth after being frozen.

Phase 5 of seed starting is also in progress. This is the stage of dispersing extra plants to friends, family and neighbors. The plant tray holds heirloom tomatoes, basil, parsley and pimento peppers ready to give away. 

In the memorial, where ashes of friends are scattered, the wild phlox is blooming beside a stone bench. The prayer beads were left by friends of one of the deceased whose ashes lie here.

Heading back to the house I noticed a leaf caught under the door sill.

But, on closer inspection, it turned out to be a moth, no doubt scouting out the venue for our annual moth festival.

My walkabout was a wonderful distraction from anxiety about my up-coming shoulder surgery. I’ve had too many operations to repair and patch up rheumatoid arthritis damage. This will be the fifteenth or sixteenth and I’m weary of being in the shop for repairs. Nature, music and books help distract me from pain and worry. I’m lucky to live in Paradise.

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer

My May Gardening

Things are happening in the big outdoor garden, but today I’m focusing on the cold frame and indoor plant starting.

Two hot days scared the lettuce and spinach, who seemed to be saying, “Quick! Reproduce before we die.” I rushed out to harvest some of the lettuce that hadn’t yet bolted and brought in a peck basketful. (A peck is a quarter of a bushel.)

Spinach plants have been putting up seed stalks for a couple of weeks, and now the lettuce plants are shooting up in preparation for blooming. We will let these plants bloom and when they begin to dry up I will harvest their seeds for next fall’s cold frame planting. No commercial seed beats home-grown and saved seeds. What’s more, we will have four kinds of lettuce seed and two kinds of spinach seeds that won’t cost a penny.

Romaine lettuce in the other side is slower to bolt, but clearly it is on its way, particularly the tall one in the back of this photo. My refrigerator won't hold any more lettuce, so I'll harvest some of the romaine to give to neighbors, leaving two or three to go to seed.

Inside the house, the sweet potato slips are proliferating while the mother potatoes are still forming new sprouts. There are at least two dozen slips, one of which is in a pot of soil and vining. Even the Japanese yam has finally made three shoots.

Finally, seed starting has moved into stage three, called “hardening off.” The little plants are on the deck, exposed to sunlight and breezes. The tomatoes, which were the first to germinate, have been outside for nearly a week and are ready to move into their permanent homes in the garden. Peppers, parsley and basil are slower and will need several more days of babying before they are sturdy enough to plant outside.

My banged up body doesn’t allow me to do much of the big garden work, but thank goodness I can still run a little nursery. It’s a joy to play in the dirt and watch the miracle of reproduction in the plant world.

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer

An Act of Faith

It's an act of faith to plant seeds when the thermometer registers 102º, faith in the life force resting in the seed and faith that better days lie ahead. Today I forced myself to stir from a lethargic state and plant escarole, Chinese cabbage and radicchio seeds for a fall garden.

Of course I didn't sow the seeds in the blazing hot, dried-up garden. I planted them in plastic egg cartons saved from the long-ago days when we didn't have chickens.

These egg cartons are perfect seed incubators. They retain moisture and admit light – two essentials for germinating seeds. I put them in the laundry room, which is the only place in our house that gets  sunlight during the summer months. (Deep eaves prevent solar gain during the summer, but allow for solar gain when the sun goes south for the winter.)

As soon as the seeds germinate I will open the egg cartons to allow the seedlings to grow and to prevent damping off. Damping off is a fungus that destroys the stem of a seedling in an overly moist environment.

The seed starting medium has extra phosphorus to stimulate root growth. I will be able to see the white rootlets through the clear plastic. As soon as the seedlings develop their first true leaves I will transplant them into potting soil in styrofoam cups with holes punched in their bottoms. By mid-August they should be ready to set into garden soil. They will need to be acclimated first by gradual exposure to outdoor temperatures and sunlight.

Our climate is changing, no doubt about that. Summers are hotter and drier. The traditional summer garden in Kansas may soon become nothing but a memory. We will have to adapt our gardening to meet these conditions. We will have spring and fall gardens, as well as winter gardens in cold frames. That's the reality we face.

I have faith we can succeed.