The Trusty Gardener-Hopefully Last Night’s Freeze Will Be The Last of the Spring
Snap Peas, Potatoes, and Yellow Onions Are Planted/Making Progress in the Garden Despite the Sporadic Frost
Oh, the trials and tribulations of being a gardener!
Welcome back. It seems like it’s taking forever this Spring to get past the last frost. It must be I’m too anxious to get the garden underway. Since I am retired, I have more time so I try to rush the garden at times. It seems we get spoiled with some warm weather, only to have the cold nighttime temperatures return. Last night it got down to 23 degrees here in the countryside of Central NY State. Yikes. However, this is perfectly normal for this area. Gardening is not considered safe until the end of May.
Both my greenhouse on the porch and the cold frame in the lower garden have heat tapes, so that helps tremendously to protect the plants. They turn on when the temperature gets to around 35 degrees. As a precaution, I did bring in from the greenhouse my tomatoes and peppers last night, as well as some herbs we bought a few weeks ago. Even with the heat tape, when the temperature gets down to the lower 20s, it still goes below freezing in the greenhouse. The onions, leeks, kale, lettuces, and Pak Choi survived just fine.
I also brought in the three hanging flower baskets that we bought for Mother’s Day.
I’m hoping this will be the last frost of the season. Looking at the long-range forecast, it looks like we’re in the clear. Stay tuned.
Slowly Making Progress
That being said, I have been able to get a few cold-tolerant vegetables started in the cold frame as I wrote in a recent article:
Last week, I was also able to plant peas, potatoes, and onions. Peas and onions are considered cold-tolerant. Some years I plant these in early May, even late April. Potatoes can also tolerate some cool weather. It takes time for the potato sets to sprout; by the time they come up all danger of frost will have passed.
This is a different variety of snap peas that I am trying this year. I ordered them from Pinetree Garden Seeds.
Following is the description from the Pinetree Garden Seeds website:
This recent All-America Selections winner produces 4” stringless pods that are straight and slender, resembling the appearance of a green bean. The Snak Hero Pea flavor however, is scrumptiously sweet with the juicy, crisp texture typical of snap peas. Vines are compact, reaching 18–24”, optimal for growing in patio containers or hanging baskets. The Snak Hero Pea is succulent, and is excellent, raw or cooked, and holds up great in the freezer.
I am looking forward to trying these. The vines only grow 18 to 24 inches tall, which will work well with my low fence.
Eva Potato
If you follow my writings you know that I love growing potatoes. Probably a close second to my overall favorite, tomatoes. This year I am trying a different variety, Eva.
I used the traditional method of planting potatoes using a 6 to 8-inch trench. After placing the seed potatoes (pieces cut to contain 2 or 3 eyes), I partially covered them with only a few inches of soil. This will speed up the sprouting process since the soil should warm more quickly over the sets.
Eva is a mid-season white potato from the Cornell breeding program (released in 1999), great for baking, mashing, or making homemade chips. They are resistant to early blight, golden nematode, common scab, and hollow heart. I found them at a local farm store and decided to give them a try. It’s always fun to try different varieties. My usual go-to white potato is Kennebec, a variety my parents grew.
Yukon Gold Potato
The name says it all. This a tried and true variety that I grow most years. They are a great all-purpose potato and the appearance and flavor are hard to beat.
According to Wikipedia:
This potato was developed in the 1960s by Garnet (“Gary”) Johnston in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, with the help of Geoff Rowberry at the University of Guelph. The official cross-bred strain was made in 1966 and ‘Yukon Gold’ was finally released into the market in 1980.
In the next week or so I will plant some Banana potatoes, a fingerling variety. For this variety, I will use the straw method (no digging) of planting potatoes. More on this in future articles.
Yellow Onions
I planted 2 rows of a Stuttgarter-type yellow onion. For these, I used sets from a local farm store.
These common yellow onions are a good general-purpose onion that stores well over Winter. I also will be planting 2 other types of onions I started from seed. I wrote about them here:
Stay tuned for more updates as the planting process continues. Now that the end of May is approaching, the garden will come to life quickly. As long as Mother Nature cooperates.
