Well, the rapture didn’t happen and the world didn’t end (although I had high hopes) and things have finally heated up, enough to plant corn and cucumbers, basil and tomatoes. We’re enjoying spinach now and lettuce, radishes and dill will make a delicious salad tomorrow. This year we planted strawberries for the first time and they are surprising us with emerging berries.

In the past, we started many vegetable seedlings in the greenhouse in early February. This worked well, for a while. When we began to have losses from disease or damping off or inferior plants from legginess we decided to shift the focus to starting perennial plants (ornamentals for the flower borders) and take our chances with direct seeding most of the vegetables. This is a vastly superior system for us, with the exception of a few heat-loving vegetables, we have much greater success with direct-sown crops. The perennial plants have prospered and we’ve added a cold frame for hardening of cuttings.

We’re experimenting with a new approach to weeds. We flame the beds, (with a torch attached to a propane tank) then rake them, then flame them again, and then plant out the transplants. So far, we’re noticing a big difference between those flame-treated and those that haven’t been. I’ll keep you posted on this situation.  Potatoes are going great guns and we’ve already had to hill them up.  We’ve rhubarb galore so I’m looking for rhubarb recipes.