Getting What You Wish For

Last week I was praying for rain and guess what happened on Sunday? Finally, lots of it. I am not complaining, except it was rather muddy planting potatoes. Oh well, you can’t have everything. I am just glad to see everything perk right up because of the wet stuff. And perk up your garden—that is what the rain is so good for. Tap water just isn’t the same.



The tulips are out in full force right now and the bleeding heart sure cheered up with all the rain we had. Everything looks better from getting the good wet stuff.

I have been amending my soil with compost the past few days. I use it for my mulch and it gives the soil nutrients as well. I get it from the city, going over to the compost center each morning before work. I let it stink up my car in the morning before I unload it at lunch time. Then I lay it in the beds very carefully when I get home from work in the evening. With the compost and the rain my garden sure is looking a lot better than it did last week at this time.




Wednesday my parents celebrated their 59th anniversary. So I took them a candlelight dinner that included some asparagus from my garden. I don’t have anything else yet, but the strawberries are blooming and the apple trees have been in bloom so I know I have fruit coming my way this summer.

There is a section in my garden for myrtle, my mother's favorite plant. It is in bloom this time of year and I think of her when I see it.




The types of potatoes I planted are German Butterball, All Blue and Purple Viking. I have never tried these types before so I am looking forward to them. They are heirloom potatoes I got from the Seed Savers Exchange. The onion sets I bought from Burpee’s are planted as well. Soon I will get the peas I started into the ground and plant some leaf lettuce. And this weekend I will set up my greenhouse on the deck and start moving some seedlings out to it. The cat will no longer be a bother to them. What a relief.



The Valerie Finnis hyacinth seem to do well even though they are planted beneath my maple tree in the front. A nice skirt of blue this time of year.

Rain, rain come my way

April, the time for showers, has been dryer than my skin in the month of February. That’s pretty darn dry! I have already been out watering the redbud and viburnum I planted last summer. Not sure if I will get these little guys to survive. I am ready for a good three days of showers, but would be happy with just one if I could get it. Fortunately I do amend my soil with compost and after 10 years of adding this good stuff at least I wasn’t hitting concrete when I divided some perennials the other day. The hint here is that compost will help your soil retain some moisture and keep it from turning into hard rock. Another good hint I picked up in a gardening magazine is to keep buckets, or some other type of container at various places in the garden for throwing those weeds into when I am walking through the garden. It's hard for me not to pick them, how weird is that. This is something I have just started doing and I like this hint just fine.



The white trillium I got on sale at Abele’s last May is in bloom! I was so excited to see it out there; nothing ate it, it survived the winter and is making do with this dry spell. The one I planted up north several years ago I have never seen. I think the deer get to it before I do.

Yesterday I picked 5 spears of asparagus and had one of my favorite dinners—just plain asparagus with a dab of butter. Was it ever good! And there is more where that came from. I will probably be eating it for the next two weeks at least. I just love getting my supper from the garden. No shopping for me! Avoiding the grocery store can be habit forming. Unfortunately the cat doesn’t care for asparagus so I do still need to get there on occasion.




I have started potting up the tomatoes in separate pots, and will be doing the same for the peppers soon. My potato seeds have arrived from the Seed Savers Exchange and I expect the onion sets any day now. Time to get some lettuce and radish seeds in the ground. I started the peas in containers since they don’t like cold soil even though they prefer the cold weather. I am hoping for some rain so I don’t have to keep watering some of the plants I potted up. There is enough watering indoors to do at this time.

I can’t complain about not having rain on Saturday though. The Master Gardeners were at the Andersen Rose Center uncovering the roses that day and rain is heck to work in—I know since I have done this job in the rain before. We did see a snowflake or two, but that didn’t stop us from getting most of the leaves out of the beds. The pruning will come later.



And I guess that’s the word from Saginaw, Michigan during this dry April season. Perhaps the next time I write I will be able to report some foul weather of the wet variety. That’s what I’m hoping for anyways.

Budding Time

You know spring is really here when all of a sudden most of the trees around you have buds on them. This week the redbuds were in bloom. The miracle of life has occurred once again and winter is now officially out the door for another year.




It is also the time to baby seedlings. Even my peppers are starting to sprout through that fine germinating mix I planted them in. Keeping them watered, under gro-lights for enough hours of the day, fed a good fertilizer for seedlings, repotting them when it is time to give them separate homes of their own-- this is what I have started doing and will continue to do until the end of May or the beginning of June when they will actually go into the ground.




The hyacinths, bluebells and daffodils are putting on quite a display. And yesterday I saw my first red tulip start to show, although there are plenty of buds waiting to show off. The hyacinths are planted near my deck so I get to smell their perfume every time I go outside. What a pleasant treat!




By the end of the week I will be eating asparagus. They are starting to push their way out of the ground. Yes, I know it is truly spring when homegrown asparagus is part of my supper.
Happy Spring!

Seed Starting

I love when spring is actually, really, and truly here in Michigan. I am not 100 percent certain we won't have more snow, but the weather has been gorgeous lately and low and behold, one lone daffodil last Tuesday turned into several by the end of the week.

I started seeds in earnest this past week. I use germinating mix I get from the Garden Supply Company as well as some seed starting kits that have been in use now for over 20 years. They still work great. Starting seed requires moisture and these kits work fine for giving seeds the moisture they need to get going.




The tomato varieties I am growing this year are Cream Sausage, Dafel, Dandy, Flamme, Golden Delight, Gold Medal, Golden Treasure, Great White, Juliet, Purple Smudge, Roma VF, Speckled Roman, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Striped German and White Beauty.

I grow a lot of peppers as well. This year’s varieties include Anaheim, Ancho, Bianca, California Wonder, Cubanelle, Fish, Golden Calwonder and Orange Belle.



I am also growing cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli. Basil varieties include Cinnamon, Lemon, Genovese, Sweet Mammoth and Serrata. I grew the Serrata last year and it did super for me. I am still eating pesto I froze last fall using the Serrata basil. I had enough to share with my sister which is pretty amazing. I usually hog all the basil I grow for myself.



Other herbs I am growing this year include Black Cumin, Epazote, Fennel and Hyssop. I am looking forward to cooking with them. There is nothing like fresh herbs to cook with, although I do dry them for the winter time. Or make pesto with the basil and freeze it.

Over the next 4 weeks or so I will struggle to keep my seeds under good growing conditions. This means watering them when they need it as it can get pretty hot under the grow lights. It means some fertilizer and transplanting them to bigger pots when they out grow the seed starting kits. They tend to take over my house as I struggle to find enough places to keep them where they are safe from the cat. I will eventually set up the little greenhouse I have on the deck where they will spend some time hardening off. I used to take them out and bring them in, in and out, in and out, but it has gotten difficult to harden them off this way due to a pesky cat. Now if they can bear to be outside in the greenhouse they simply go outside as soon as I can get them there.



I have been spending some time doing cleanup in the garden as well. We hit 80 degrees here in mid-Michigan last week, quite unusual. But we could get a snowstorm any day. That is Michigan (and perhaps global warming) for you. I was happy to notice the garlic had poked out of the ground. So the squirrels didn’t get all of it last fall. I think they thought they were good, tasty bulbs. Surprise! I am excited to try these varieties I planted last October: Broadleaf Czech, Lorz Italian and German extra hardy.



It is tomato dreaming time of year for me. I will probably get my first tomato from the Farmer’s Market which opens Memorial weekend. I won’t have any myself until August. But until then, I can dream.