Before the Rain Set In...

They say April showers bring May flowers & we are certainly getting our fair share of rain.  We did have a few good days this past week, however, and I was busy getting the garden ready for planting.

Raindrops on spruce trees...

The task that was at the top of the list last week was spreading compost on all the beds.  Since I get compost in bulk using a utility trailer, it's a job that's dependent on the weather, as is the task of getting it from the trailer onto our beds.  Thankfully, I was able to finish up yesterday before the rains started.

Other than plant specific soil amendments such as manure,
the beds are all ready to go...

I still have about a quarter of a trailer full of compost left which is destined for the asparagus beds & fruit trees, but that will have to wait until the rain lets up.  In the meantime, the trailer has traded places with my car so it's safely in the garage waiting until our next dry day.

I also made a start of one of the beds in the front garden.  Last year we had our front walkway redone and I’m now on a mission to finally deal with a long 43’ x 6.5’ shady bed that runs between it and the house.  The beds in front of the house, especially this one, are littered with inherited invasives.  Since this area doesn’t get much direct sunlight (many sections don't get any at all), I’m thinking the previous owners tried to plant it up with readily available perennials and shrubs that are known to handle full shade.

The bed that I’m tackling first is overrun with periwinkle & ribbon grass.  On the surface, both of these look quite pretty, what with ribbon grasses variegated blades and periwinkles glossy evergreen leaves and pretty blue flowers.  Those unassuming vines & grasses, however, quickly take over an area & are a right pain to remove.  I can't believe that I still see periwinkle at some garden centres even though it's specifically listed as an invasive in Ontario.

This is one of those embarassing "before" photos taken back in 2013.
You can see the ribbon grass together with a carpet of periwinkle
(and a very weedy bed on the other side of the path - yikes!)

Although I’ve made a bit of headway over the years by pulling & digging, this time round I’m taking the more aggressive approach & covering the area with black plastic & mulch.  Around the cedar trees, I’ve used thick cardboard so that they benefit from any rainfall that we get.  Next spring I will remove the plastic & hopefully have a clean bed that I can start to plant up (aka the fun part!).

Moving from outside to inside, there is a lot of promise for the coming season under the grow lights.

The peppers were started late this year and are still rather small but they will bulk up quickly once I repot them (on the schedule for tomorrow), so I’m not worried:

This year, I'm growing 8 varieties of peppers (all sweet)....

The tomatoes are on their way too but it will be at least a week or two until they get potted up.

and 13 varieties of tomatoes.

I also have a few greens under the lights including kale and broccoli.  This year, I decided to only use seed that I already had in my stash and, unfortunately, that meant that my tried & true Arcadia broccoli is off the table as I had run out of seed.  I’m planting Aspabroc in its place, which is ok as I actually LOVED this variety last year – it was so sweet!

Aspabroc became a favourite last year - it was so delicious!

I’ll also be trying a variety that I’ve had in my seed box for a few years now but just never got around to sowing as it's specifically recommended only as a fall crop (and therefore sown in the summer):  Calabrese.

It’s a rare year, however, when the odd seed-starting issue doesn’t arise, especially when trying new varieties or some seed packets are a little bit older than they should be.  I’ve started 6 varieties of lettuce, but 4 of them are having sporadic germination....or are they?  When I went down to check on them today, some of the empty cells had tiny seedlings coming up.

Black Seeded Simpson and Freckles are two of the four lettuce varieties
that are especially slow to get going this year.

Each of the cells has plenty of extras, so I'll still have enough to fill up the bed even if some varieties do come up short.

I've also had in issue with a couple of ornamentals where germination was barely 50%.

It's my first time growing Honeywort (Cerinthe major) & the seeds are large and hard as a rock.
I did soak them for a few hours before sowing, but that may not be enough to crack this particular nut 😉

But the zinnias had almost 100% germination - not bad for an entire flat with 12 different varieties!

We are in for lots and lots of zinnias this year!

This coming week, some more indoor sowing is on the books (sunflowers, melons, cucumbers) plus I’ll hopefully be doing the first round of direct sowing in the garden (arugula, mache, radishes, peas).  This winter seemed particularly long and it's wonderful to finally feel as if spring is here...now if only the rain would stop!