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| Cloche with vent to protect tender plant |
Saturday, April 18, 2020
It is spring, but you are dreaming of summer veggies. What to do? Try these season stretchers!
The first thing you can do to extend the season is to start your seeds indoors or purchase plants from your neighborhood nursery, hardware or big box store. Basil, tomatoes, and rosemary are already at my neighborhood stores.
To get your plants a safe early start in the garden, you can buy cloches, Wall of Water, a green house, or use a fabric covering to put your plants in or under. If you are using a cloche or green house, be careful to vent anytime the sun is shining or you will fry your plants.
Be careful if using a greenhouse or cloche. When the sun is out, it gets hot inside the plastic fast! Temperatures inside greenhouses can climb to over 100 degrees F on a sunny day. Be sure to open the greenhouse or cloche so you don't roast your plant.
Another trick is to lay clear plastic over your garden bed two weeks before you are planning on planting. Make sure the soil is watered well first. Clear plastic will raise the soil temperature by 8-14 degrees F. This gives your plants a head start when they are placed in the pre-warmed soil. Summer lovers like tomatoes hate cold feet and will just sit in the hole, shivering until the ground temperatures rise. Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes
You can either remove the plastic, plant, and then cover with mulch or leave the plastic in place and cut slits into the plastic and plant through the slits. I personally don’t like to leave the plastic in place and use mulch. Wait until the temperatures are on the rise before mulching as mulch can keep the soil from warming if applied too early. This time of year is great in the Midwest to mulch.
Some would think that black plastic would give an even bigger temp boost, but it does not. Temps will raise by 3-5 degrees F.
One other thing to consider. The south side of the house will heat up much sooner than the north side. You can give your plants a warmth and growing boost by putting them on the south side up against a wall which will radiate warm back to the plant through the night.
As temperatures start to warm, you want to keep the crops that like cool temperatures in areas that will stay the coolest to prolong the harvest for them. A spring edible garden Spring loving crops like spinach, lettuce, kale, cilantro will bolt when the temperatures start hitting the 80's. It is that bolting time of year..... Bolting is when the plant sends up a flower stalk. Don't despair; you can save the seeds to replant in the garden. Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver
These are a few ways to get your garden producing sooner rather than later.
One other thing to consider. The south side of the house will heat up much sooner than the north side. You can give your plants a warmth and growing boost by putting them on the south side up against a wall which will radiate warm back to the plant through the night.
As temperatures start to warm, you want to keep the crops that like cool temperatures in areas that will stay the coolest to prolong the harvest for them. A spring edible garden Spring loving crops like spinach, lettuce, kale, cilantro will bolt when the temperatures start hitting the 80's. It is that bolting time of year..... Bolting is when the plant sends up a flower stalk. Don't despair; you can save the seeds to replant in the garden. Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver
These are a few ways to get your garden producing sooner rather than later.
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