Planting push

The extended forecast looks good which means I can prepare to move the zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, tomatoes, watermellon, and pumpkins outside to the cold frame for a couple of days and into the garden this weekend. Once these plants germinate and break the surface of the soil, it is amazing how quickly they grow in the trays. It is fun to watch their progress in the poly house where they seem to grow several inches each day.

I will also plant string bean seeds directly into the ground. I have maxibell bush beans, a french filet variety, and fortex, a pole bean that likes to be supported.  In the past I have made teepee trellises out of bamboo which serves as a good support for the vines and also provides visual interest. I will be on the lookout for bamboo poles in the next couple of weeks.
 I need to be mindful of where I plant as I am in danger of closing myself in from the outside. This weekend I will mark off a central path that will provide access in and out of the garden. I have been walking all over the garden and compacting the soil everywhere I step which is not good.

 I mixed up another batch of seed mix and seeded a tray of cucumbers and another tray of red and green lettuce. I have begun harvesting, just a few bags of greens at a time, including some arugula and the first baby leaves of spinach, but there should be a lot more to pick by next week. By the end of next week there should also be red lettuce, bok choy, and perhaps some broccoli raab. I spoke to my friend Leah at the Farm and their vegetables are a little bit ahead of mine. However, they have almost everything covered in row cover which acts as an insect barrier, and also creates a warm microclimate for the vegetables which speeds up their maturation. I didn't use row cover this year because the flea bettles haven't found me yet. They will, but hopefully not for a couple more years.

I've noticed a bit of yellowing on the vegetables in the garden which indicates a slight nitrogen deficiency. I suspect the nitrogen has been tied up because of all the organic matter that I applied to the garden in the fall. As a remedy, I applied fish emulsion which gives the plants a boost and helps them to green up. Now that my garden is a manageable size and just outside my back door, it is easy to inspect the plants each day for subtle changes in leaf color and quickly fix the problem.