A tad early, the gardening season will get off to a mild begin

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It’s time to prepare for the outside gardening season. Sure, the custom in Maine is that the season begins on Patriots Day (April 18 this yr), however in the event you spend the following 5 weeks studying and worrying about unnerving present occasions all over the world, you may be approach behind when it comes time to do some precise gardening.

Just a few many years in the past after we had much less cash and didn’t take spring holidays, the approaching week could be after we arrange our seed-starting station and planted pepper seeds. Tomatoes and different greens would come later. We don’t do this anymore. We’ve eliminated the fluorescent lighting fixtures that used to hold on chains above the ping-pong desk we then used as a seedling station. Now, when the teenage grandchildren go to, we really play desk tennis.

However we do nonetheless plant issues now. My spouse, Nancy, is rising ranunculus for the primary time as a result of she actually preferred those within the flower association I gave her for Valentine’s. In Zone 7 or above, the ranunculus corms may have been planted outside final fall. Within the frigid North, the planting is extra sophisticated.

First you could soak the corms, which appear to be plump claws, in lukewarm water for a number of hours. After that, put about two inches of business potting combine into the underside of a container, place the corms over the soil, then cowl them with extra soil by about an inch. Hold them in a cool place till they sprout, then transfer them to a sunny window. In Could, plant them outdoors.

Nancy, who’s a eager recycler, places moist planting combine within the backside of a kind of massive plastic containers that grocery store produce departments use for salad greens, then shuts the lid. On this improvised mini-greenhouse, the corms sprouted shortly. The ranunculus will look attractive this summer time in what we nonetheless name the vegetable backyard, becoming a member of the dahlias, gladioli, zinnias, tithonia and different flowers there that we carry inside to make use of in bouquets.

You may see the sting of Atwell’s chilly body right here, with a little bit of lettuce that escaped its confines final rising season. Photograph by Tom Atwell

That is additionally concerning the time that, for the previous two years, I’ve planted lettuce in a chilly body (mainly a miniature greenhouse) within the vegetable backyard. I started the observe in 2020. It was a really heat March, and I used to be searching for something to do within the early days of the pandemic. Inside only a few weeks, I used to be slicing younger lettuce greens for our desk. Final yr, I repeated the experiment. I used to be nonetheless getting lettuce in December, when the wind put an finish to my challenge. It blew the highest off the chilly body, and the lettuce froze. This yr, I’ll attempt to get some carrots going, too, to present us extra selection in our early spring greens.

It’s a superb time to test your gardening tools: Is it clear and in fine condition? In earlier years, I’d have sharpened all of our pruning saws, hand pruners, loppers and different tools by now, however this winter I used to be busy refinishing and reweaving garden chairs, so the instruments are nonetheless ready in a field for the wanted upkeep. I’ve completed with the furnishings, so plan to get to the instruments subsequent.

If I’ve time, I’ll attempt chitting potatoes, which I simply heard about this yr though I’ve been rising potatoes for a minimum of 40 years. My methodology has been to take the seed potatoes – whether or not ones I’ve saved from the earlier yr’s crop or seed potatoes we’ve bought – and minimize them up with a few potato eyes per piece a day or two earlier than planting them, normally in late April.

Do the identical process three or 4 weeks earlier than you propose to plant, and also you’ve chit potatoes. Throughout that point, you permit them in a cool however sunny space, letting the eyes sprout and develop. Now, I’ve been happy with our potato crops previously, however who is aware of? Possibly they could possibly be even higher. This spring, I hope to do a side-by-side comparability of the 2 strategies.

With a number of these pre-April chores, the actual objective is to persuade myself that winter is nearly over and that gardening season is coming. That thought improves my psychological, and doubtless bodily, well being at a time when each may use the increase.

Tom Atwell is a contract author gardening in Cape Elizabeth. He may be contacted at: [email protected]


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