Is spring here?

Usually by this time of the year we have tomatoes and cabbage and onions and most everything growing in the garden. Not this year. Most of March was wet and ugly. It wasn't necessarily cold but it seemed like it rained almost every day or every other. There was mud everywhere. And now that April is here it has turned off cold. The last two nights we have been down to the upper 20s and low 30s. Way too cold to plant garden crops. I think we have a little cold still coming so going to wait a few more days and then check the 10 day forecast.

Really not much we can do about the weather. We have to make the most of what the weather gives us so we need to work with the weather. Most veggies won't grow with the ground as cold as it is. We might have them planted hoping that it will make our picking season quicker but most likely it won't. Mother Nature has to cooperate for us to have a good harvest season. Some things you can go ahead with are lettuce, radishes, onions and most of the cole crops. Get them planted. The rest we can kind of wait on.

If you have tomato and pepper plants and such, now is a great time to be hardening them off to get them ready to transplant. If you take a plant that is used to 70 degrees all the time and plant it where the night time temps dip down into the 40s or 50s, there is going to be stress. Then if the air temp is say 65 or so the sun beating down on that plant will raise the temp of the plant way above comfortable levels. Set the plants out for a few hours morning and afternoon. Do it longer tomorrow and the next day unti l the plants can be outside most all day. In other words gradually condition them to outdoor temps. If you do this you will be good to go.

One thing I'm doing today is till along the edge of our bigger outside garden. All it will take is a single pass right down the edge. The garden is maybe 200 feet long. My plans are to scatter purple top turnip seed down along the very edge. These will come up within a few days and then by the end of May we should be eating some smaller turnips. We did this last year and they turned out pretty good. I got them too thick so we had bunches of tops but not as many real turnips as I'd hoped. Oh well we'll do better this year. When it's time to clean the spot where the turnips are I can either till them under or simply mow them down with our mower.

One other idea I'd read about last year was to scatter buckwheat seed in between the rows. The buckwheat will germinate real quick and provide ground cover to help with the weeds but also with the spring rains. Our outside garden slopes off pretty good on the north end so I'm hoping the buckwheat will help hold the soil. One place I was reading suggested that one scatter the seed before doing any planting in the rows. By doing this the seed will get scattered even more and a good bunch will get covered up as well. Once the buckwheat is tall enough one can mow it off or weed eat it off. It will provide some ground cover as well.

If you haven't had your soil tested plan on getting it tested this summer or fall. It takes about a pint of soil. Dig down about 8 inches or so and then take a sliver off the side of the hole. One can take slivers from several spots in the garden, mix the slivers all together and then take about a pint out of the mixture. By finding out what your soil is lacking you can add the lime this fall and it will be ready for spring gardening. I take my soil samples down to the county office at Benton. Last time I checked it was like $9 for a basic test and like $17 for the micro nutrients as well. The basic soil test should be sufficient.

There is thing I'd have on hand and that is Bt. This is an organic treatment for caterpillars and such in the garden. I think it is called Dipel dust in some of the stores. One can get a liquid form that can be sprayed on or one can get powder. I use the liquid on my tomatoes for the tomato hornworm but I use the powder on our cabbage and such. It works on these worms.

On our way home last week from Sikeston we came back through Aquilla and bought some Brussels sprouts. I'll bet I've tried to grow them a dozen times and we are still to eat our first Brussels sprout. We have had a lot better luck watching the sales in the stores and buying them there. I swore I was through trying to grow them but I guess I'm a sucker for punishment. One more time this summer. I am going to plant them through plastic mulch so maybe that will help with the bugs and the weeds.

One thing I am doing is planting some Stupice tomatoes in one of our high tunnels. A high tunnel is kind of like an unheated greenhouse except both of the sides and the ends can be opened up to let air and such in. I figure I'll plant tomatoes in the high tunnel which will protect the plants in case of frost. I usually figure that the high tunnel will protect the plants down to about 25 or 26 degrees. By the time you read this we'll have had the cold temps and I'll know if my tomatoes froze or not. Hope not.