I think it may be safe to say that not everyone knows that WHEN you plant really really matters. I didn’t know until…really a year ago. And that’s hilarious considering I have owned and operated a greenhouse business for seven years.

I had always imagined that, you could plant a seed and as long as you had enough time in the growing season for it to produce, that it would. I have gone through the trepidations of watching my radishes and cilantro bolt up and put off seeds in the summer heat before they even begin growing the actual radish or the actual nice cilantro leaves. What the heck did I do wrong? I thought. And those two plants are not even close to all that fall under this delicate time balance.

When I say delicate, it’s really not that particular. As a matter of fact, it actually opens up more options to the gardener! I did know early on not to plant anything until after the full moon of May. What I didn’t know is that only was meant for plants that cannot tolerate a frost. There are some plants that LOVE frosts! They actually taste better if there has been a recent frost before you pick it! Carrots get sweeter. I think lettuce tastes crisper. That being said, it opens up earlier blocks of time for you to get out into the garden and put something in the ground to start growing.

In the heat, lettuce can actually become unbearably bitter to eat before it grows skyward and puts off its flower show, followed by its seeds. This is why timing matters. Plant your lettuce in April. I did start seeds indoors, but I’ve actually had better luck simply planting seeds directly in the ground. With lettuce, you have the option to either sow thick bands, with more seed, to create rows of lettuce you can “cut and come again” where you just cut the tops off and the rest keeps growing. This makes it helpful if you have it right out your back porch and can easily grab what you need for whatever meal you are making. Window containers also work for this. Or…you can sow individual lettuce plants, allowing each to reach its full growth potential before actually pulling up the whole head of lettuce. Both are nice to have, I think I may experiment with doing both this year. I also think I may need a post by itself just to describe all the different greens I grow. They are fun, and resilient, and gorgeous, and delicious. I am so excited to share.

But as for today, I wanted to touch on early plantings, because that’s what I’m up to right now. And it’s fresh in my brain. Really the first thing I should’ve planted was peas, and as for outdoor seeds, that still may be the truth.

I purchase bareroot plants every year, and this year there was a beautiful alignment of timing. My bareroot plants had not actually leafed out yet, which means they were still dormant, AND the weather outside has been lovely and the ground is not frozen solid, which means I can plant my bareroot directly in the ground! Actually a bunch of them are on my front porch in a bag with a warm blankie over them at the moment, but hey, I got some of it finished. I thought outside with a little protection, since their roots are not actually in the ground, but its still mostly outdoor temperature, it would be better than bringing them in the house or the greenhouse only to shock them by bringing them back outside.

So, as for bareroot, which is what I ended up starting with. I planted Elderberry “bushes”. Which quite honestly look like sticks with some roots at the ends right now. But I have had great luck with them in the past and I believe everyone should plant at least one elder in the garden. Old wisdom tells us she’s a fierce protector of the garden. I want that!

The other thing I planted yesterday was “Purple Passion” asparagus crowns, which I had to take notes on how to plant and might include them in a future post somewhere, but for now, feel free to google it. It was alot, and by the end of it I was excited tot have a very good night sleep. Although I will say having those two giant rows of asparagus is going to be wonderful when they finally start producing. What a treat!

For bareroot, I still have about 5 Magnificum Hardy Geraniums, 15 Haskap Berries ( Both the berry blue pollenizer and the borealis) 25 Patriot blueberries, a few lilies, and 10 grape vines. There were 25 elderberry plants and 48 asparagus crowns. Phew!

I will not be planting ALL of the blueberries. Even though I want to.

So, after that gets finished, I will start on planting seeds! And first on the list is peas!

I have two varieties this year that I will plant, which, if you know me, two is…strangely low in variety. But they’re peas and I love them for fresh eating. If someday I want to freeze or can peas, I will probably grow one more type.

I grow “Sugar Daddy” and “Golden Sweet Snow” peas. They are FANTASTIC.

Something that I want to do but haven’t, is to buy what is called a rhizome inoculant for my peas. It is a granular variety of bacteria called Rhizobium. If you are new to the symbiotic , friendly relationships, that plants can have with fungus, that’s okay! Today’s the day.

So if I were to put it simply, you shake this powder into the soil before you plant your peas, and then you plant your peas. Or you can soak your pea seeds, shake the inoculant onto a dinner plate and roll the seeds in it before planting.

I was going to try and explain how it all works and then realized the rabbit hole I was about to go down and nearly wanted to stop writing. So let’s not do that. I’ll keep it simple. Peas and rhizobium are buddies, they help eachother out. There is naturally occuring rhizobium in the soil as well. Especially if you add lots of organic material, think: soil conditioner.

When they buddy up, it helps the peas grow better, but it also does something that allows the the two to work together to take nitrogen from the air, and put it into the soil, thus making your soil richer in nitrogen. Called Nitrogen fixing. Yay. This will be helpful later if you wanted to grow something that needed alot of nitrogen to grow in the following season, or just as a good way to nourish your soil and be thinking of the future of your garden. And the future of you.

So anyways, I probably won’t get to that! Sad! Maybe I’ll order it today and do two plantings of peas. I do love peas, and they will very likely sell very well at the farm stand.

The next thing I want to plant would be radishes, I grow the “White Hailstone” and love them, but I am also going to plant the “Purple Plum” variety because I love the benefits of eating the rainbow.

Beets would be next, I have the Golden variety, the “Chioggia” candy-cane looking ones, and the good old “Bull’s Blood” (terrible name if you ask me) and “Detriot Red”

Beet seeds are funny looking. I love them.

Really I have insanely huge purple cauliflower plants in the greenhouse that need to go out, as well as lettuce starts and broccoli, tatsoi, baby bok choy and purple lady bok choy.

To be honest, I don’t eat THAT much tatsoi or bok choy, or broccoli…or cauliflower. At least not the 32 plants that are staring me in the face every time I go into the greenhouse.

I had mentioned to a potential client that you really want to think about what you will actually eat and plant that. Which might come off as snarky but truly guys, there’s only so much broccoli a girl can eat without not really wanting to look at it again.

Although…I will find my broccoli cheddar soup recipe and list it here because between that and fried rice and just randomly gnawing on it, that’s about the extent of my broccoli eating skills.

Cauliflower on the other hand, I’ve found to be much more versatile.

After those would be carrots, but carrots can be finicky in their germination, so I have to be careful and make sure that I can cover them with something so they can get the humidity they need to germinate well. Last year I think I planted three rows of carrots, but honestly they didn’t produce well enough for me to sell lots and also have enough for myself, so I know I need to up my game there.

I did invest in a boatload (is 50 bags a boatload? ha!) of Happy Frog soil conditioner. Which was incredibly brave of me considering I had never used that particular product before so I had no clue what to expect. May I say that after opening and feeling it in my hands and tossing it in the garden, and reading what’s in it (Mostly bat and worm poo) I am confident it will do wonders for my garden. Just don’t pick your nose after you handle the bat poo. That’s my advice to my four year old, but I figure it’s good overall advice!

There are many other things I could be planting. But I also have the plant nursery business, so I have hundreds of seedlings that need potted and hundred and other plants that need transplanted. My plate is full. But in the best way possible.

We also pulled the plastic onto our third greenhouse last night, and it was only about three inches too short! Maybe I’ll write about how we managed to make that okay later. Creating the greenhouses have been fun and I would love to share my insight on all the parts and pieces that needed to come together to make it happen.

Until next time, Happy Gardening!