The Madman’s Not Done Planting

Here it is June 11 and we’re not done planting. The changeable New England weather really slowed us down. It was either too hot or too cold. The good planting days were few and far between.

Every spring we complain about the weather. I guess we could solve this problem by moving out of New England. But the madman refuses to do that. And actually, I do agree with him. We like Connecticut. So here we are, dealing with the weather.

Monitoring The Soil

When planting, our soil thermometer is our best friend. Plants have different soil temperature requirements. Our early plants – the peas, onions, radishes and potatoes – get their best start at 50° in the soil. This is when they establish their roots. Before the soil thermometer, warm sunny days tricked us into planting too early. I’m not sure who started the tradition of Planting Peas on St. Patrick’s Day, but around here, it doesn’t work.

The madman planted his peas as soon as the soil temperature reached a consistent 50°. But, this year, we didn’t just plant the peas, put up the netting and walk away. We added a new trellis system from Gardener’s Supply to keep the peas contained and growing up instead of out. So far, the reviews have been great except from the deer. Seems they don’t like to approach it to take a nibble off the peas. We’ll see what happens when the newness wears off, until then we pick peas.

Prevention

In addition to a new garden structure, we added permanent woodchip paths. If you remember, last summer our garden paths were totally overgrown by weeds. The madman is determined to reduce weeding chores as much as possible this year.

Shortly after the peas, the madman planted his potatoes and onions. As we always do, we mulched as we planted. But this year, we put on an extra thick layer of mulch in the beds to meet the chips in the path.

Mulch

Remember, you mulch for three reasons. First, to keep the weeds down, eliminating competition for the nutrients. Second, to keep the soil from drying out. The third reason is one that most people don’t think about. The mulch keeps the soil at a cooler consistent temperature. In case you didn’t know, Mr. Sun can get that soil pretty hot.

When we finished the peas, potatoes and onions, the soil temperature was running around 70°. Just about right for planting summer crops. Then Mother Nature threw us a curve as usual.

Warm Soil Is Not Enough

The soil was warm enough to receive our transplants, thanks to the hot sun. But suddenly air temperature became an issue. The warm sunny days were accompanied by cool, clear nights. Great for sleeping; not great for planting. The madman’s hot peppers do not grow well with nighttime temperatures in the 40°s. Same goes for the other summer plants. Consistent nights at this temperature may stunt growth.

But all that is behind us, the days are nice and warm and the nights aren’t that cold anymore. So, we set in the transplants on mornings before the sun gets too hot. Then, we plant seeds when the sun is higher.

Different Materials

We mulch our transplants as we go, using different materials for different plants. For tomatoes, we use a red plastic mulch. We stretch the mulch across the bed and anchor it in, then cut a hole for each transplant. While it keeps weeds out and moisture in, the red plastic reflects beneficial wavelengths of light back onto the plants.

For our other vegetable transplants, we put a layer of wet newspaper on the bed and cover it with a layer of straw mulch. We like using this combination because it protects the plants and slowly breaks down to enhance the soil. With seeds, we don’t mulch until they come up. Then we use just straw. At one time we tried to use a layer of newspaper, but the madman has trouble planting a straight line so now we just double up on the mulch.

In the flower beds, we mulch with a layer of leaves. Not just any leaves, the leaves the madman gathered last fall and chopped up with the lawnmower. Eventually they will naturally break down to bolster the soil.

No Mulch

We talked a lot about mulching, but there is one crop we no longer mulch. One year we discovered that the straw mulch around our squash plants provided a safe haven for hordes of Squash Bugs (Anasa Trista). After watching a zillion of these creepy little monsters running away from a damaged plant only to hide in the straw, the madman vowed never to mulch a zucchini again. So, we have to weed these by hand.

We started this blog by blaming Mother Nature and the weather for our gardening delays. But there was a little more than that. The madman and I discovered the joys of pickleball. Thanks to the game, we have lost a few hours each week playing this game instead of the gardening game.

Today is not a pickleball day, so we’ll head out to the garden. But first a glass of lemonade.