Early Spring Gardening

One of the things I find really attractive about gardening is that there is always something happening – even at a place like Chez Siberia (where parts of the property are Zone 2 in terms of what will survive). This week was no exception. You’d think that nothing is happening in the garden here but the sun proved that wrong. We had a week of 50-degree temperatures with lots of sun. I shoveled off one of the beds to start the process of warming things up and by the end of the week, the rest of the beds had been exposed on their own. And then I saw them – the garlic that we’d planted last fall. second chances

I took the soil temperature in that bed with the garlic – it was 32.8 degrees F. Barely above frozen. And yet – that garlic was not just up – it was darned up. Look at that leaf development. The ends – with the brown on them, are what came up last fall before the freeze. The green parts are all new – and grew up through the frozen soil and into the snow. Now, THAT’s determination. But it also shows that even in the depths of winter, under the snow, things are going on and growing in your garden.

Of course, seeing that, I looked around and saw that other hardy bulbs in the yard have started to come up as well – tulips, crocuses, daffodils. They will start to really take off once things warm up. But the garlic is a signal to me that I’d better get that tunnel built over one of those beds so that I can get the greens, chard, cabbages, broccoli, etc. planted once I can get the soil to hit 50 degrees. Warm enough for them. Not for Tomatoes, peppers, etc. – but definitely for the hardy early spring veggies.

MMMMMMMM, new greens. Looking forward to that.