False Spring and Resurgent Winter

As the ground thawed several weeks ago, I began to get excited about my spring plantings. In a short period, I watched my soil temperature go from the mid-30s (19 Mar) to 50 degrees (24 Mar). The warm stretch held until 5 April, when the average daily soil temperature dropped from 52 to 43. Yikes! It hit a low of 39 on 8 April which suspended planting. The only thing in my planting set which can start in soil that cold is garlic, and I had already planted all of my garlic cloves. After several days of temperatures in the low 40s, I was finally able to plant some more lentils today.

So far I have:

- two blocks of garlic (planted 19 and 26 Mar, respectively). Both blocks came up quickly and are thriving nicely. The cloves were from a hardneck variety with a pinkish tinge to the outer paper. I received the bulbs from a neighbor last fall.

- two blocks of lentils (planted 26 Mar and 16 Apr, respectively). The first block (144 seeds) has sprouted and the seedlings are about an inch high. My seed stock is a bag of basic grocery store lentils.

Planted 27 Mar
- one block of lettuce (NK Lawn & Garden: Grand Rapids). Nothing yet. These were 2003 seeds I'm trying to use up.

- one block of arugula (Johnny Seeds: Sprint). Several seedlings have emerged. Majority have not yet come up.

- one block of radish (America's Choice: Sparkler). A good number have sprouted. Growth has been slow due to the cold snap.

- one block of mustard greens (Seeds of Change: Green Wave). Nothing yet.

Planted 29 Mar
- one block of shallots (Seeds of Change: Ed's Red). Nothing yet.

- one block of scallions (Burpee: Evergreen Long White Bunching). Nothing yet.

- one block of quinoa (Seeds of Change: Temuco). Nothing yet.

- one block of spinach (Seeds of Change: America). First seedlings seen today.

- one block of snow pea (Seeds of Change: Oregon Giant). Appears to be just about to break the soil.

- one block of flax (?). Nothing yet.

The weather is supposed to warm up considerably starting tomorrow.