The Trusty Gardener-It's Time to Start Gardening in 2022!
The Garden is Rototilled and the Peas Planted
Welcome back, fellow gardeners. I’ve done it! Finally! The garden is underway for 2022! It seems like forever since I’ve worked in the garden. It hasn’t been quite forever, but it has been almost 7 months!
Hopefully, we’re past getting snowstorms for the season. Now that the 14 inches of snow that we received on April 19th has melted (actually it melted very quickly) it is time to get on with Spring and Summer activities. Oh, I’m sure we’ll still get a trace of snow in May. But a significant snowfall is very unlikely. However, frost is still possible in this area normally until the end of May. I have even seen frost here the first week of June.
After the snowstorm, the yard and garden were extremely wet. Way too wet to do any work in the garden. Luckily, we got a dry spell for a week or so (also very windy)and things dried out nicely. I was able to cut down a birch tree that was damaged during the storm (top snapped off) and get that cleaned up.
The Hügelkultur Garden Bed is Complete!
I was able to continue working on the Hügelkultur garden bed and finished that yesterday. I have been writing about that on Ko-fi and you can find my latest article there. I would appreciate if you follow my articles on Ko-fi.
Time to Rototill the Garden!
On April 29th I broke out the old rototiller and thanks to the dry conditions, I was able to bring the garden back to life. It’s always a great feeling to get working in the garden and bring the garden soil back from the long Winter of inactivity.
During the rototilling process, I mixed in the mulched leaves I had spread on the garden last Fall and some straw that I had used to put pumpkins on (straw bale). The straw had started to decompose and provided some wonderful organic matter to enhance the soil. It is always important to continue to enhance the soil.
Once the garden is tilled, then the garden can begin. A blank canvas. As I mentioned above, here in Central NY, frost is still possible through the end of May. Therefore, only certain vegetables can be safely planted this early. Mainly cold hardy ones.
When you think of cold-hardy vegetables, what is the first one you think of? For me it is peas. Especially snow peas or snap peas. But peas of any kind can be planted early, as soon as the ground can be worked, with soil temperatures in the 40s. They seem to thrive in cool weather.
Other cold-hardy vegetables include onions, lettuce, kale, cabbage, radishes, and other greens. So there is quite a bit that can be planted early if you want to get an early start on the garden. It’s a gamble, however, to plant veggies such as tomatoes this early as a frost can be devastating. It’s better to wait.
Planting Peas
As you can probably guess, peas were first on my in-garden planting list for the 2022 garden. I normally grow snap or snow peas which are good for stir-fry recipes and for salads. You may recall that I purchased many of my seeds this year from Seeds ‘N Such and wrote and article about their seed catalog.
A few days ago I planted Little Snow Pea Purple from Seeds “N Such. The description from their catalog:
50 to 54 days. Dwarf plants with delicate two-toned purple blooms. Grow for its beautiful ornamental value, for its sweet, crunchy pods or both! Vines reach 16 to 20-in. in height if grown in containers on the patio or 24-in. when grown in the garden. Striking flowers are colored in purple-veined lavender or midnight violet for a stunning bi-color effect. Highly productive plants produce crisp, brittle, flat, bright green pods with remarkable flavor. Eat the entire pod! Needs support.
As you can see, I planted the peas using the fencing I already have which is about 20 inches high. I am looking forward to the results.
Stay tuned for more updates. Hint: I may have already planted some more cold hard vegetables.
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