Beltane Beltane Moon
Just looked back over my last several posts and realized my not so happy face stares out of most of them.
Feeling a little fragmented, not focused. Not that things aren’t getting done.
Yesterday I planted tomatoes and peppers. A bit early, maybe. But the predicted lows look pretty hopeful. Up here in Andover we land in the southern reaching tongue of Minnesota that has a predicted last frost date of May 22-28. At least according to Bruce Watson and son’s Minnesota weather calendar. Today I planted chard, collard greens and carrots. Tomorrow pac choy and some more collard greens.
To plant the carrots I had to replant several lilies in our longest raised bed. Seven or eight years ago I went to a lily sale at the Mn. Landscape Arboretum and purchased a number of lily varieties grown by Minnesotans. I planted them in this bed as part of a cut flower garden, before we turned it over to vegetables. The lilies love this bed. They have multiplied like crazy and now get in the way of the section of the bed I want to use for leeks and carrots.
Planting carrots, as those of you who have done it know, requires patience. The seeds are tiny and getting them to come out of the hand one at a time is not easy. Still, they’re in the soil now.
We decided to plant crops that we store over the winter so this year we’re focusing on onions, carrots, chard, beets, collard greens, potatoes and tomatoes. In September I’ll plant next year’s garlic crop, too.
We also have a number of fruits on the way: raspberries, strawberries, apples, cherries, currants, blueberries and wild grapes.
Now is the time of watching the weather, scanning for bugs and disease, nurturing the plants. Attending to the crops.
