A recap of my spring garden activities is a bit overdue here. It’s lovely to be back out spending my evenings in the greenhouse and the garden, but it does keep me from getting in front of the computer as often as I’d like. On the 17th, I planted out the lettuce (‘Jericho’) and onion (‘Frontier’) transplants I’d grown from seed in the greenhouse. Both of these crops were more than ready to get out of their plastic cell packs and into the fertile moist earth. I also sowed more nigella seeds in addition to some fragrant stock, carrots, beets, and swiss chard.
The spicy cut lettuce mix and radishes I sowed in early April have germinated nicely but struggle to grow in this cold wet spring, as do the peas. The rain has continued to pour down – we’re up to 3.75 inches this month – but on Thursday evening, it was one of those perfect long spring twilights that seems to go on forever. I spent many hours in my garden, putting in my snapdragon and dianthus transplants that I’ve been growing on for the past eight weeks, first in the greenhouse and then in the cold frames.
I also planted my spring container with Delphinium elatum, Tulipa ‘Purple Prince, Lysimachi nummularia ‘Aurea’, Aquilegia ‘Woodside Gold’, Dicentra spectabilis, and Phlox subulata ‘Red Wings’. I love how it moves in the spring breeze and looks like a full cottage garden in one small space. I also planted a few delphinums, lavenders, yarrow, and rosemary in my ornamental beds to fill in spaces where some perennials didn’t make it through the winter.
Speaking of cold weather, on Friday morning (4/24), we got an unexpected very late frost. Fortunately it did no damage as I was able to get all my row covers on over the lettuce, recent transplants and seedlings. The onions handled it like old pros, even without any cover.
