Just a quick note to let you all know that we are laboring in the garden.
We had a scare the 25th of May: two days after transplanting all the plants the weather forecast was 32 degrees! Terrible conditions for new tender plants not yet acclimated, and some (tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant) that actually love it hot and humid. We rangled some Agri-Bon and were able to get them all covered ‘just in case’– or was it ‘just in time’? The night never did reach the freezing point, though it lingered at 36 degrees for three nights running, and the days were cold and overcast and windy. We left the row cover on for over a week and what a surprise the day we removed it! The tomatoes and peppers look amazing! Their color is a deep green and the stems are sturdy and strong–we’ve had to cut off a gazillion premature blooms, but with the vitality of the plants we are not concerned. And the cold?–on my goodness! It was just what the cole crops–broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, and bok choi– needed; even the snap peas look better! (I call them the ‘cold’ crops because they are the plants that like it cool and mild, and they bolt and run-away when it gets hot!)
Hard to consider that the cold was a good thing–but I actually believe it was. I doubt we would have covered the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and green beans with a row cover, but did so because of the fear of loosing them. The temperate plants were wrapped in a protective cocoon that helped their roots develope and intensified the small amount of sun present, while the cold was a boost for the other crops which had been dealing with an unseasonably hot spring. There is a wisdom greater than ours…
Now–if I could talk myself into some positive benefit of the gusts of wind upto 35 mph!!
The Farmer’s Wife–