#25 Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend. Parades, barbecues, traffic jams – a day set aside to remember those who died in service to our country. It also signals the start of the summer season. It is okay to wear white clothes and straw hats. But, more importantly, this weekend is seen as the start of the summer gardening season.

The Week had a Dismal Start

The madman wasn’t sure he would be able to plant this weekend. At the beginning of the week he would get up and run to the thermometers. Always the same. Air temperature, 42˚. Soil temperature 62˚. He figured that’s why everyone was asking him why their plants weren’t growing. Although the magic date for last frost had passed the ground was still too cold to plant.

Pushing the Season

Despite the calendar date, the madman had not been in a hurry to get his warm weather plants in the ground. Sure, there are ways to rush the season. His mother always liked to have the first tomato on the block. Her method was easy – she used a 5 gallon bucket on rollers. Before breakfast, she rolled it out into the driveway. After dinner, she would roll it back into the garage. Unfortunately her neighbor Armand had a south-facing plot next to a concrete wall and he always beat her.

Friend and Master Gardener John Carlson has an easier method – plant lots. He always has a surplus of seedlings, so he can plant some outside early. If they die, he has more to take their place. Those early outside transplants he calls his “Suicide tomatoes.”

Mini-Greenhouses

More recently friend Bill has experimented with early plantings in what he calls mini-greenhouses. Someone gave him a pile of empty water cooler bottles. He cut off the large bottom portion of the bottle to place over his transplants, leaving the small connecting neck open for air circulation. Last we talked his plants were doing great.

Bill’s idea is not unique to the gardening world. The madman did experiment with walls of water at one time. His were 18” tubes that he filled with water – the idea was to harness the sun’s energy and warmth to push the gardening season. Since he doesn’t do it now, you can imagine that the results weren’t worth the effort.

Glass Garden Cloches

The jugs Bill used were spinoffs of the glass cloches, used in European gardens in the 1600s. According to Gretchen Voyle from Michigan State University Extension, the garden cloches were invented by an Italian glass manufacturer in 1623. The bell shaped jars were quickly adopted by the French and later the English.

The glass jars protected tender plants from cold temperatures and harmful winds. The downside was that the sun could overheat the delicate plants so the cloches needed constant monitoring. Thomas Jefferson used garden cloches at Monticello, place that wowed the madman.

No Need to Cheat Anymore

But now, it seems we don’t have to worry about cheating Mother Nature for a few months. The weather broke on Thursday. I saw the madman dancing on the patio that morning. “Guess what the thermometers say,” he shouted. “Air temperature, 64˚. Soil temperature, 68˚. And it’s only 6:00.” On top of that a warm spell was predicted. I knew what that meant.

While he had been chomping at the bit to get things planted, we had been using our time wisely to get the garden ready. We turned the soil in planting beds, added compost and raked them smooth. During the prep work, our soil test came back from UConn. Nutrients were all good, but our pH was a little low so we added some lime. We even had time to put down the mulch before planting.

Garden Mulch, the Madman’s Friend

In our garden, we use a couple of different mulches. The sweet peppers and previously planted cold weather crops are mulched with a layer of newspaper followed by a layer of straw mulch. We learned of this method while working in the Master Gardener’s Model Garden in Haddam. It works well for us and really keeps those weeds at bay-the madman embraces anything that means less weeding.

For the tomatoes, we use a red plastic sheet of mulch. We stretch it over the planting bed and secure it with garden staples. We started using this because the madman had heard that the red wavelengths reflected back to the plants encouraged better yields. We tried it and he believes it works, so we still do it.

Garden Experiment

While getting the beds ready, we noticed that the soil in the beds mulched with newspaper and straw has a better texture so we are conducting an experiment in this year’s tomato beds. We used a layer of newspaper under the red mulch in half the tomato beds, and we noted it in our garden journal. Basically, we will be looking for a difference in soil texture because of the decomposed newspaper. We’ll keep you posted.

Planting the Garden

Planting was a breeze this year when Mother Nature finally gave us the green light. Over the years, we have developed a system for getting the transplants in the garden. It is probably pretty much what everyone else does. Dig a hole; add fertilizer and a cup of water; put in the transplant; refill the hole and water again. We add a collar made out of a paper cup to protect tender stems from cutworms. Later in the day, the madman mixes up some fish emulsion to jumpstart the seedlings.

With the vegetables planted, we headed to my flower beds to repeat this process with the flower seedlings started along with the vegetables. The main difference is that I use bark mulch or leaves gathered last fall for weed control.

Warm Weather Seeds

With the soil temperature in the 70s, the madman felt he could plant some warm weather seeds such as squash, cucumbers, corn and beans. The corn is an experiment – we have not had the best of luck with this crop only because the raccoons watch it as closely as we do and always seem to beat us to the harvest by one day.

Planting seeds is easy because the madman treats all seeds equally. He digs a furrow with his warren hoe to a depth of three times the seed’s thickness. No, he doesn’t use a ruler; he claims he has a practiced eye. He drops the seeds in one by one and covers them with soil. If rain is in the forecast, he is done. If no rain is forecast, he waters them in.

Plant Supports

With all the crops in the ground, the madman has to start thinking about support. Some crops, like summer squash and bush beans grow fine where planted. All he adds is some mulch as they grow. Others like cucumbers, pole beans and tomatoes require some type of staking-the madman doesn’t want these growing on the ground. Over the years his staking system has evolved in two directions. Pole beans and tomatoes grow on metal cages. Cucumbers and peas (remember, he planted these a while ago) are trained to grow on nylon trellis netting, stretched between metal fence posts. As soon as the plants are in the ground or beginning to germinate, the madman likes to get these supports in place. He has learned the hard way that if he waits too long the plants fight him every inch of the way.

It’s Not Over Yet

By the end of the weekend the garden was pretty much planted so now we can sit back and enjoy the summer, right? Not exactly. All plants require a weekly allowance of water – this is most critical when they are young and undergoing transplant shock and growth spurts. If the rain gauge doesn’t show enough rain, the madman has to irrigate. Also, the madman is big on IPM (Integrated Pest Management) – this requires daily scouting missions to determine if there are any pest problems that require action. He only uses pesticides if there are no other alternatives. 

We are tired, and the lemonade is ready.