April CSA

TLC Gardens

April 2010

Things are growing and the tasty treats are just around the corner!

Well, that was a corny intro to this month’s newsletter. Corny…haha…a pun on words there. To be accurate, I guess I should focus on the tomato and not the corn. The photo featured above shows the seedlings that I started six weeks ago. The plants in the middle are the tomatoes and there are peppers on both sides. The little ones in the front left corner are the basil plants. Don’t they all look healthy? The entire process has been a learning experience for me but I think I have the routine figured out. I have various indoor lights dangling over the seedlings during the day and at night I turn the lights off and put a fan on them instead. The fan is used to discourage mold and fungus growth and to encourage stem growth. It seems to be working.

These last few days, Kent generously spent some time building cold frames for me. These are mini-greenhouses that are used to extend growing seasons and to harden seedlings. I found a woman on Freecycle who was giving away shower doors that have been seldom used, got those from her, and am using them as the lids for the cold frames. Both Kent and I are pleased with the results. I plan to put the tomato seedlings in the cold frame by the end of the week and the pepper plants a week after that. This will allow them to acclimate to the daylight cycle and the temperature fluctuations with a more gentle approach.

The potatoes I planted last month are now emerging from the soil. The Yukon Golds are winning the race against the Pontiac Reds but I am confident that the reds will peak their beautiful green leaves anytime soon.

This last month’s weather system has been a challenge in the garden. I was hoping to get a lot more weeding accomplished but the ground was so muddy that I kept pulling too much soil with each extraction. I gave up. It has only been in the last few days that I have been able to weed the berry patches and the garlic.

It will be interesting to see how this last month’s weather has affected the apple production. This was the first year in at least a decade that all the trees have flowered so vigorously. Unfortunately, the timing coincided with the cold weather and the occasional hail storms. The bees weren’t able to come out and pollinate the trees at that time. Hopefully, there was some success when we had breaks in the storms.

There’s not a lot more to report here. I guess it’s the calm before the busy season. All the peas are growing and thickening, the chickens continue to lay more eggs each day, and I seem to have won the onion battle with the earthworms. All is well!

Anytime you would like to come out and visit the gardens, just let me know.

With love,

Tarri