2022 Garden Journal - 5.7.22
A week into May already! Or is it dragging?
Gardening at this time of the year is like playing on a teeter totter - one side holds the rush of the season, the never ending to do lists and the feeling that there’s not enough time to get it all done; the other tells us to slow down, unpredictable weather makes knowing when to plant difficult, heavy spring rains that keep us inside, grateful for the rest deep down.
We had a goal of planting out most of our starts today and even starting some new seeds. Although the weather is dry, the rain from the last few days has the ground spongey. While that wouldn’t have stopped us a few years ago, these conditions aren’t great for an almost 16-month-old, especially with heavy winds and temperatures hovering in the 50s. I’ve had a lot of these reminders recently. We work in small bursts where we used to work in days. We sacrifice plants for the benefit of play and building curiosity.
I laid out tomatoes in their beds. I only designated 3 beds out of our 10 in the main garden for tomatoes thinking overconfidently that we could plant 50+ plants in them. While also companion planting with onions and carrots. I was wrong, but it’s not a bad thing to be drowning in tomato plants! We have three additional garden beds in a separate area of our yard and I never plan them out. We call them our overflow and experimental garden. Last year we inoculated one bed with mushroom spores as an experiment. We only harvested 4 mushrooms but that bed has great soil now thanks to rest & mycorrhizae.
Over the winter I dreamed of adding a kitchen garden of sorts on our deck with containers. This spring I shifted gears and added a new flower garden with 4 raised beds and gave up hope on the deck garden, or so I thought. We are getting a few metal raised beds from Vego soon and although they won’t go on our deck, they’re going to go right beside it. I’ll save a few of our tomato plants for these beds! Josh also brought home some old produce bins from Whole Foods Market where he works. They were trash-bound and are perfect for planting on our deck. We also used some coconut coir planters in some other trash-bound planters for some strawberry plants that flank the entrances to our deck. Aurora is a little young to totally embrace this garden space this year, but the idea is for her to have a fun space where she can plant, water, and harvest. Having it close to the house where she can see it all day will make it easier to care for and help build her excitement as she grows.
The rain hasn’t put a complete damper on our gardening this week. I snuck out for 20 minutes yesterday and got some sweet potato slips in. Letting that sink it…20 minutes. Sometimes that’s really all it takes. We make ourselves believe that everything needs to happen at once.
The flower beds are mostly planted, although I have a lot of seeds and tubers and bulbs that need to find a place to grow!
I’m working on enjoying the slow moments. Taking a deep breath when Mother Nature lets us know that she needs a break from our work to let her do her own. I’m using the slow moments to gear up for what’s soon to be a hot and busy scramble to get everything in the ground come June.
Happy Growing!
