Easter in the Garden

 

It was a very pleasant Sunday, breezy but temperatures in the mid-50F range. We visited Tower Hill Botanical Gardens in Boylston. There was not much to see outside in the gardens, just some snow drops and crocus. Their gardens look pretty much like my own, weary of this winter but showing signs of the new growth that will soon turn everything from this drab grey-brown to green.

 

 

This morning I made a quick trip to see the garden. I was hoping to find the beds free of snow and indeed they were. A thermometer stuck in the pea bed showed a temperature of 48F and the soil was completely defrosted all the way to the bottom of the bed. So pea planting looks like a possibility next weekend, about three weeks later than planned.

 

 

I brushed some of the mulch off the garlic bed so it can warm up faster. Green sprouts can be seen everywhere in the bed and they look pretty healthy. Unfortunately, it appears most of the shallots either heaved or rotted. I am not sure if any will actually survive and grow. This was a fairly costly experiment, but it does free up the space for something else.

 

 

My brassicas and lettuces are doing great under the grow light and should be ready to go in the garden in a few weeks. The boisterous seedlings at the bottom are the Win-Win Choi. After seven days, I have a few tomato seeds finally deciding to sprout. Peppers and eggplant are still idling away on the heat mat, taking their good old time. Meanwhile, the onion pots are spending time outside in the sun on days with daytime temperatures in the fifties.