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