Mothers Day Cold Front - Protecting My Babies!!

As gardeners we always worry about that last frost.  Most of us get the itch when the weather starts to get nice to plant things even though a little voice in our heads tell us there is still a good chance it will get cold.  Here in Ohio we are going through that in the last week.  We had some great weather - days in the 70's and sunny - perfect gardening weather.  No massive rains to make the garden too wet to work in (lots of tractors in the big farm fields around here due to that fact!).  So on the weekend of May 4th I couldn't help myself - I had to plant some peppers!  I planted 10 sweet / mild peppers that I had been growing in my basement since late Feb.  It felt so good to get some plants in the ground!!  Also planted a few herbs we had purchased at the nursery.  So fast forward to May 10th with forecast of low 30's the entire weekend.   I was going to be away for the Mothers Day weekend so I had to get the protection put on Friday night.  Being Mothers Day it was kind of fitting as I'm sure many other gardeners feel the same way as I do - especially those who start plants from seed... but these plants are like our babies.  You nurture them as tiny baby seedlings, keep them watered, give them food, make sure they have proper light and heat - then they start to grow up so you try to get them ready for the real world by hardening them off slowly for a few weeks to be ready to be out in the garden on their own - kind of like preparing your teenager to go off to college or enter the real world of having  full-time job and living on their own.  

I used a few tools to protect my babies this weekend, the baby peppers I put some hoops over them and used a layer of row material and the plastic over that.  Many of the plants I put on tidy cat buckets (who knew our stash in the garage would come in so handy!), other 'cheap' ways is to cut out the bottoms of milk jugs and 2 litter pop bottles.  The jug/bottle cloches are great for small transplants as well till they mature a bit since they still get sunlight but protected from harsh winds and temps. 

My garden of Tidy-Cats.  When using something solid like this for overnight protection,make sure
you remove them after it warms up the next morning so the plants get the sunlight they need. 

One new protection method I'm testing out for the 1st time this year is water wells.  I bought a 3pk at the nursery - it says you can plant tomatoes up to 6 weeks early.  They are kind of a pain to setup/fill - I used Mo's help as having the extra set of hands was needed.   I did use a variety that was supposed to be more cold hardy (Sub Arctic Plenty)  anyhow (as I had extras of them if something went wrong).  I planted them in mid April and I checked them out last night and they are still doing ok - almost starting to poke out the top of the wells so glad this is supposed to be our last cold front.  How they work is that through the day the sun heats up the water surrounding them and then it releases the stored heat thru the night to protect the plants from the cold.   All 3 of the tomato plants have buds blooming right now and have grown about 8" in height since I planted them. 

Tomatoes in the water wells, basil in the 2 litter bottle cloches

Some plants are cold hardy and normally will not need any protection for a slight cold snap.  Plants like radishes, cabbage, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, greens, etc.   Normally if you can plant the plants early in the Spring, they are safe from the odd, short lived cold fronts.  I did cover some of my cold hardy plants (some broccoli, cauliflower & brussels sprouts)  with the tidy cat buckets JUST in case because I'm one of those over protective moms I guess.  =)   Tonight's low will be in the low 40's so those plants will be fine - but the peppers, artichokes, tomatoes and basil will still need some protection - they like it over 50 at night. 

Artichokes in milk jug cloches.

Peppers in their low tunnel.

 Happy gardening everyone - I'm hoping to be able to plant the rest of my 'babies' this weekend (May 18th).  I still have over 60 pepper plants and 20+ tomatoes to get into the garden...  their 'grown up' home.

Hardening off the rest of my pepper and tomato babies.  They spent the weekend
in the workshop to keep out of the cold weather and crazy winds.

Spring has Sprung!

Last week we got 2.8" of rain within 48 hours and the temps have really started to stay warmer, things are really starting to turn green.  The spring bulbs are alive and starting to bloom to give color again to what was so blah after this what seemed to be forever winter season.  Here is a good show of what just 5 days can do to the yard with some rain and warm weather:

I have been hard at work this early spring working on the garden.  As you can see from the photo above that I finally have all the wooden side boards installed on all the beds!  I've almost got all the paths installed with their walkway materials.  I'm putting down very thick layers of cardboard and newspapers and then straw over top of that.  Hoping that will keep the weeds at bay as well as keeping my feet from being muddy when I work out there. 

Today is the first day the Forsythia is in bloom!!

Driveway entry beds.

Last night (4/15/13) I planted some broccoli and brussels sprouts that I bought at the nursery over the weekend.  I have some growing from seed in the basement but not getting a great germination rate (can't remember how old the seeds are), so decided to just get a head start and get some in now and then have a later crop of what ever ones end up starting.   Both of those are very cold hardy but supposed to dip down into the mid 20's this weekend so I'm going to be using old 2 liter and milk jugs with the bottoms cut out to place over them to give them some protection - cheap/free cloches.   

My older rhubarb plant came out a few weeks ago and is really doing well, has a good set of leaves on it.  The one my parents gave me last year just started to pop up on Sunday - was so happy to see that as it is a part of the plant that was my grandparents...  so its part of a 50+ yr old plant and I'd hate it if I killed it!!  I'll keep amending the area with more compost as rhubarb loves that!  Looking forward to trying new things with it this year after seeing a post of one of my fellow YourGardenShow friends blogged last year with great new ways to use it.

• Rhubarb Salsa
• Rhubarb Sorbet
• Strawberry Rhubarb Jalapeno Spread (really can't wait to try this one!!)
• Vanilla Rhubarb Jam

50+ yr old rhubarb plant from my grandparents garden originally.

The other one, well ahead of the other plant.

 I planted peas about 2-3 weeks apart on either side of my pea fence.  This year I'm using one of my old doggie play pen fences, got them when the dogs were puppies and even used them for the hens as a run until they figured out they could fly up & out of it... (hence the chicken tractor project).  Last year I had used one of those string trellis pea fences - I think it was from Burpees that I found at Lowes.  Unless you are only planting a handful of peas - don't use that product...  worthless.  Once the plants got heavy with fruit the string started to break and folded over on itself, making it VERY hard to harvest.  That is why I decided to use metal this year.  After I planted the 1st round of peas, the weather took a dive - got really cold, snow, etc...  those peas are just now coming up.  The ones I planted 2-3 weeks after that are now also starting to come up - so much for the staggered planting time to extend the harvest.

Peas popping out of the ground.

The other items I have going in the garden is onions and potatoes.  Mo stopped at the nursery on the way home from work last week and got me a good supply.  I have all the potatoes in and the onion bunches - but still have some onion sets I need to get out.  We will have a LOT of onions this year.  =)  I'm trying to plant the onions along the edge of the beds to use up that normally wasted space, as well as being a companion plant for many other plants - especially the cole crops like cabbage, broccoli, etc.  "They" say that the onions near by should help keep the cabbage loppers away - which was a major pest for me last year so we'll see is it does help at all...  if not my trusty bottle of soapy water and tweezers will be used again to hand pick them. 

Some of the onions planted on each side of the bed. 
Cabbage will be going in the middle.

I also purchased a set of 3 water wells for tomato plants to try it out.  Supposed to be able to plant out 6 weeks early using them.  I have a variety I'm growing this year called Sub Arctic Plenty that is supposed to be more cold hardy than normal - so I might try planting 3 of those out with the water wells early next week to give it a try.  


Watch for my  next upcoming project blog which is a french drain in the driveway...