Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Earth Day 2009

Well, it's been one week since the burn, and true to the time of year-- it's all Resurrection out there! The seedlings seemed to start coming up almost immediately, by Sunday certainly, uncurling little heads that will in a few months be coneflowers. Here's a shot from the balcony today, of the tree that was scorched a week ago, and the little stand of wildflowers that wasn't totally sprayed by Round-up last Fall. You also see what wasn't burned, which is greening up nicely.


I officially started my seedlings for the vegetable garden too soon. The windowsill is totally crowded and at this point I'm going to water and hope things can handle the pots they're in until May 1, when I'll transplant. It's not completely safe to plant outside until May 15, but I'll put blankets over things if there's a threat in the following two weeks. The zucchini particularly are stretching out. The tomatoes are starting to have actual stalks, not just fragile stems. And I'm all but guaranteed to have brussel sprouts given the strength of those seedlings. The peppers, butternut squash and snow peas are struggling a bit (the peas really want to be outside on a vine trellis). I can plant those seeds again directly, along with the cucumbers, lettuce, onions and shallots and carrots. The shallot bulbs arrived in the mail today, with some dahlia bulbs. It won't be long now...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Put your tomatoes, peppers and other warmer weather crops out in early May but cover them with cloches to create a minature greenhouse that will protect them from weather and rabbits. I've saved milk cartons and cut the bottoms out from them. Lots of people use empty juice containers (think: Oceanspray clear containers). French farmers invented the concept about 100 years ago and they continue to use these gorgeous, thick glass bowls to extend the growing season of their veggies.

Susan Sink said...

You're kind of freaking me out here, Connie! I'm gonna get these plants and some more seeds in the ground nad see what happens... I'll go up to "cloches" in the next five years or so... I do think I'll put some hollowed out coffee cans on some of them to block the wind at first...
This year it's mostly about sun and water...