What's happening in the early April edible garden

Early April garden, mulched and ready to plant!

Saturday, April 6, 2019

The time has arrived for sowing seeds, pulling weeds, and putting transplants in the garden and pots! I plant a combination of herbs, fruits, vegetables and flowers every year.  The flowers attract pollinators that help the fruiting plants like tomatoes and peppers to produce more as well as just looking good.

Status of our garden

I took in my soil sample in to the local extension office for analysis.  I was waiting for the results before I did any fertilizing of the garden beds.  Ends up this was a good choice.  I am good on everything.  I'll just add nitrogen to each planting hole as plants use this nutrient quickly in the growing phase.  The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals

I did pull weeds and we mulched the garden bed so it is ready to be planted.  We have Egyptian walking onions, chard, sorrel, arugula, carrots, celery, lettuce, dandelions and plantain that overwintered and are going strong right now.  I use the bottoms of the onions in cooking and the tops like chives.  The greens I use in salads and also as wilted greens.

Looks like so far I have a rosemary that survived the winter in the garden.  Thyme, oregano, tarragon, parsley, garden chives, and garlic chives all are green and ready to use.  I'll need to replant my sage and cilantro.  I planted several varieties of creeping thyme last year so that we would have different colors of flowers.  There were 4 different kinds that survived the winter.  I'll divide those this spring to put between the stepping stones.  They are edible, pretty and smell good.  Start a kitchen herb garden!

The bay, kumquat, goji berry, lemon balm, pepper plant, lemon grass, orange and grapefruit tree I overwintered in the garage are adding leaves.  The kumquat is full of ripe fruits and the pepper plant has a couple of peppers on it.  I moved them all outdoors this week as the extended forecast has the night time lows staying at least in the 40's.  

The lettuce seed I sowed in the mini greenhouses last month are sprouted.  I'll start thinning by transplanting the larger ones into the garden.  I bought some kale and spinach plants that I planted in pots last week.  They are looking quite happy.  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

I bought some petunias, marigolds, and leek transplants.  I'll get those into the garden and pots this week end.

We dug up most of the horseradish and shared with other gardeners.  These plants have an extensive rhizome like root system so there will be more that sprout from the pieces of roots left behind.  I also dug many of the onions that were growing outside the garden bed and gave them to other gardeners.  This is a great perennial veggie that just keeps giving year round.  Egyptian walking onions

April and May are fun to watch to see what volunteers will come back from last year's seed.  I will likely have many zinnias, borage, tomatoes, horseradish, and lettuce plants pop up yet this spring as the soil warms.  Try self-seeding veggies and flowers

I'll take a look in the freezer to see what we are running short on and look at the summary I did at the end of last season to finalize the garden plan for this season.  Reflecting back on 2018, planning for 2019

I think I'll also try to go to the farmers market more this year to see if there are other fruits or veggies that do well in this area to add to the garden.  We have one that goes year round and another couple that are close by that starts up in early June.  You can find a farmers market near you through this web site.  www.localharvest.org