The average last frost date for this area has come and gone and the lowest nighttime temp forecast through the end of the month is 41. I think spring is finally here to stay!The French Breakfast Radishes are speeding toward their 25 days to maturity and the Lollo De Vino Lettuce is by far, the prettiest lettuce I have ever grown.
The strawberries are already thickly covered in blooms and green berries.
And speaking of "thick", the June-bearing variety I have put out an outrageous number of runners. I tried to stay on top of it last year, giving away dozens of rooted starts and adding many more to the compost bin, but they still managed to do a little guerrilla gardening of their own, sneaking out some late season runners to plant offspring around the designated 4'x8' beds.
The blueberry bushes are also covered in unripe berries and continuing to bloom. This is their second summer in place and I am hoping the January pruning results in even larger, more plentiful berries than last year.
I am growing 2 varieties of Sugar Snap Peas this year, finishing out the last of my Sugar Anns and also growing a variety call simply Sugar Snap.
The collards and lettuces in the garden are off to a slow start which I attribute to the mostly cooler weather we have had this spring. With daytime highs starting to reach into the high 70s and low to mid 80s, I think their growth rate will pick up quickly in the next few weeks.And last, but never least, the tomatoes.
Of the 38 tomatoes that were emancipated at the end of March, I have 37 that are doing very well. The septoria leaf spot has dramatically slowed in it's progression since they were moved outside and the one Rebekah Allen tomato plant that was lost to a nighttime nibbler, has been reseeded indoors and will be replaced outdoors in a month or so.This weekend I will be sowing more herbs in the front and reseeding some of the spinach that has had less than stellar germination rates this year."In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." ~ Margaret Atwood
Avant Garden
The single, yellowed leaf I found on one of my paste tomatoes at the end of February was actually the opening shot of a fungal tug-of-war that will likely continue for the whole of 2016's growing season. The Septoria Leaf Spot fungus which can cause damage to tomatoes by defoliation leading to sunburned fruit has been mostly contained by removal of affected leaves and regular use of a homemade organic fungicide (1 gallon of water, 2 TBS vegetable oil and 2 TBS baking soda) but the close proximity of the plants to each other while they are stuck in my indoor grow room was almost certainly encouraging the spread of the fungus.With about a week to go before the last frost date for my area, I have been obsessively checking the 15 day weather forecast for the past few days to determine whether I could risk putting the tomatoes out a little early to give them some much needed space, fresh breezes and sanitizing sunshine to inhibit the fungus from spreading. Today I rolled the dice and moved them to the great outdoors!The PVC tubes that my bamboo tomato supports fit into are already in place so the plant roots will not be disturbed later in the season when they are necessary and the tomatoes have been hardened off.Last year I had a handful of tomatoes that had blossom end rot so I saved eggshells all winter and crushed them into a powder to provide more calcium to the plants. Tomatoes are a vine plant that will root along their stem, so mine were laid down in the channel I dug rather than placed upright. Eggshells were spread beneath and on top of the root area.
The stem is gently bent at a 90 degree angle several inches up from the top of the soil line from the starter cup. Roots will develop along this stem and according to Charles H. Wilbur, more roots will result in more tomatoes.
Soil is patted down over the tomato root and around the bent stem and any leaves touching or near ground level are removed to avoid splash up from the soil leading to new and exciting fungal infections.
Repeat 37 more times then relax and start compiling fabulous tomato recipes like this one while you wait for the fruits of summer to appear!