Keeping the faith
Spring is one of the busiest times in the gardening calendar, but also one of the most exciting. Not only are we planting about a million young trees , but we’re also starting a vegetable garden for the first time in years. And this time, we can use our fancy new greenhouse! What could possibly go wrong?!
When the March weather began behaving in a decidedly lamb-like fashion, we decided it was time to start some seeds. Beginning with two varieties of tomatoes and three hot peppers, I carefully sowed them into seed trays, watered them in, and placed them on the heat mat to germinate. A few days later, we repeated the ritual with leeks and shallots, as well as some favorite flowers: sweet peas, cosmos, and zinnias.
On glorious spring days with temperatures climbing into the 60s, we moved the seed trees into the greenhouse to get some sun. We’d visit our seedlings and coo over them like newborn babies in a maternity ward, welcoming the new shoots that had popped up since we last looked five minutes ago.
But somewhere around March 25 the weather turned blustery and forced us indoors. We made comfort food—a cheesy baked pasta dish and brownies—and assured ourselves we’d be back at it in the garden the next day. Or maybe the one after that. Except we weren’t. And on Sunday, March 27 the weather forecast was very daunting indeed, with overnight temperatures below freezing.
Chris set up a supplemental heater in the greenhouse, which seemed promising. In the middle of the night I woke to him getting dressed to go check on the plants. I snuggled back under the covers and pretended nothing was happening for a few minutes, but when he didn’t return I thought it best for both the garden and our marriage for me to go outside and help. The greenhouse heater was puffing away like the Little Engine that Could, barely keeping things together. Chris had put most of the plants under cover already. I provided minimal assistance, waving my arms and uttering reassuring words before we headed back inside and tried to get a couple more hours’ sleep.
Monday was very cold and windy but also sunny, warming the greenhouse to a comfortable 65 degrees. But with a second bitterly cold night in the forecast and in the interest of getting a better night’s sleep, we brought everything indoors in late afternoon.
Have these early seedlings survived? They look okay so far. We live in hope!
Looking for useful gardening resources? Here are two of my favorites:
Huw Richards on YouTube: one of gardening’s latest wunderkinds, Huw’s enthusiasm for no-dig vegetable gardening is both educational and inspiring. His new book, The Vegetable Grower’s Handbook, will be available in the US in mid-May.
A Way to Garden: Margaret Roach’s weekly radio show and podcast is my newest go-to source for pretty much every gardening topic. The show features a new guest each week, and her website is chock-full of archival episodes and other content.
Now we come to our audience participation segment: do you have a favorite gardening resource, online, in print or even engraved on stone tablets? Please tell us all about it in the comments!
Love reading your posts!
Enjoy reading your tales from Willow Green Farms!