Random Garden Stuff

We had about a week of nice, sunny weather here. Some of the things started to grow a little bit, but most things are still well behind schedule. I had hoped to put most of the rest of the warmer weather stuff in the ground this weekend, but the weather has gone back to being terrible. Its not going to frost, but the highs for the next couple days will be in the 40's with lots of rain (average high temps are supposed to be upper 60's this time of year). Ugh. 40 degree temps aren't going to kill any plants, but some of the seeds won't germinate in cold soil. The melon, cucumber, corn, and edamame seeds will have to wait till next weekend to be planted. The pepper seedlings that had been hardened and were sitting outside ready to be planted are now back indoors under the growlight.

I planted 6 bulbs of ramps (wild leeks) last summer that I had gotten from the Adirondacks. I planted them in a shady area under the lilac bushes. 4 of them came up and seem to be growing well. I'm hoping that they start multiplying so I can harvest some of them in the next couple years, though I've read that ramps are slow to grow and spread. Along the lines of perrenial vegetables, I planted 4 or 5 aspargus plants. It appears that only one of them has grown this year. That makes me rather sad since I've decided that asparagus is my favorite vegetable. At least its starting to show up at the local farmers' markets around town.

After planting several different varieties of plants, I've noticed that even in the warmer weather, some of the seeds have not sprouted well. The peas, lettuce, and broccoli rabe all have had disappointingly low germination rates. I've had to buy new packages of lettuce and peas from a local garden store to replace the ones that didn't grow. Those three original seed packs (along with some others) all of these came from pinetree seeds (www.superseeds.com). They are a small discount seed company based in Maine. I'm thinking that next year I won't buy any seeds from cheap seed places.