It's spring! Astronomically - if not our temperatures, which will go down to the teens and low 20's, much of this week. But my garden soil is WORKABLE! Yeah. Charley and I checked it out this afternoon. Nothing is frozen and it's not muddy. Just nice planting soil. We even saw a nice little earthworm in the soil. Time to get out my pea seeds.
8 comments:
wow, that's amazing... kind of feeling a bit jealous actually... lol... i'm just a bit south of you... probably a 45 min drive i think... and all my beds are still buried under a 6 inch layer of snow or more! i'm hoping it all melts this week! and- that it was the last of the snow for the year! hello, spring!
we had one day of unexpected sun for part of the day yesterday here in the NW and I was in the garden...today not so much...overcast, drizzly, cold and windy..I never plant my peas until the soil temperature is around 65 degrees... I get much better germination
We got about 8 inches of snow last week, but how much is left is quite variable in different place now. I'm really lucky with my south slope. and we got some rain after the snow. Not like the 2 feet some areas got.
I like to plant a couple rows of peas every few weeks starting when the soil becomes workable. I use a pea inoculant when I plant. I bought a soil thermometer last fall. I've never used one but will get it out and try it now. I have found that my peas sprout very well once the soil is thawed and not muddy. If it's rainy and the soil is soggy, that's not good, they rot. I look forward to seeing how soil temp affects pea germination.
anything else you will plant this week? or just peas? can't wait to get out there!
I'll mostly just plant peas. I'll plant a little bit of arugula, mustard greens, radish, and spinach too probably.
I could also plant fava beans and onion sets, but I'm not planning to grow those this year.
I plant nearly all of my seeds indoors under lights and I already have arugula, mustard green, and spinach seedlings inside. I'll plant them in out my winter tunnel as soon as they are big enough to move.
The soil temperature in my raised beds ranges from 40-44F. In my winter tunnel it's 46F. Under the thick layer of much on my garlic bed it's 38F. In all areas is well drained - no mud.
Yes it is SO great to be getting out there again!
I'm very jealous, Kathy! We still have about 10" of snow on the ground, and I'm chomping at the bit to get out there. A few years ago, we used the snow blower to clear around the beds and shoveled some of the snow off the beds to get going a bit earlier. That worked out quite well, with the aid of some plastic hoops and greenhouse plastic. This year, we are rearranging and expanding the vegetable garden, so I'm going to have to wait until the snow has gone to lay out the area properly. DebS.
Thats great! Here in USDA 7a, the ground was thawed, if a bit water logged. I planted peas and fava beans this weekend. Very excited!
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