What’s been going on at the NSSL – 4/15/24

This will be a quick post before I forget what I’ve been up to since I last checked in just a few weeks back! Let’s get to it, shall we?

Seed starting continues apace. I started seeds for tomatoes, sweet peppers, and eggplant.

• 4 Black Beauty eggplant
• 4 Santa Fe Grande peppers
• 2 Cubanelle sweet peppers, a gift from my favorite gardening Memphian, Billy Thompson Jr.
• 2 Purple Beauty bell peppers

Tomatoes aplenty were sown. I got real this year and only sowed two each of the following, which is still a lot of plants, but a much better variety.

• Jasper cherry
• Gardener’s Delight cherry
• Ace
• Vintage Wine
• Sunny Boy
• San Marzano, a gift from a West Coast gardener friend that produced well last year! I’m pretty sure that the Midnight Snack cherry tomatoes from that same friend will come up wild, but that’s not a bad thing, and why I did not choose to sow them.
• Indigo Apple
• Honey Delight (cocktail)

I direct seeded another round of peas, beets, and carrots. I added four each of Mammoth Melting Sugar, Royal Purple, and Golden Sweet peas in the northwest bed, along with nine each of Golden Detroit and Chioggia beets. In the northeast bed, I added nine more Avalanche beets and eight each additional of New Kuroda and Oxheart carrots.

Weeds beckoned in the strawberry/asparagus bed, despite what I suspect are baby rabbit burrows, so I gingerly pulled weeds around them. The strawberries are looking happy, and I spied the beginnings of two asparagus stalks! I kept the mulch down, because Michigan is a fickle mistress, but it made me happy to see them. The Duke blueberries are coming back to life, though I fear I’ve lost the Elliots for good. I’ll be replacing them.

On the porch seedlings, I had an unfortunate round of something coming for the broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bunching onions, and cabbage. I’m not sure if it was birds, or damping off, but I reseeded and I’m starting over. I may also just go ahead and direct seed those. Dang it. It’s my own fault for not bringing them in at night, I know, but I surely do hate wasted time.

This afternoon I spent some good quality time in the herb garden. My garlic chives overwintered well in the pot, and they’re going like gangbusters. One strong plant of lavender overwintered, so I added more seed to the pot to encourage some new growth. I started both of those a little late last year, so they’ll have more of a chance to get established this year.

I created new large pots of borage, rosemary, and dill. I love cooking with fresh herbs, and I’m excited about trying more things with rosemary. Borage is just gorgeous when it’s in bloom, and it’s more of a medicinal herb, but it does have a nice cucumber taste in a salad.

Since I apparently decided that my will would change actual nature, I am overrun with mint and anise hyssop. I dug up much of the mint bed and put starts in a big pot. I have no illusions I got all of it, but I did go ahead and plant three very health bare-root rhubard starts where I dug up the mint. I’m doing this mostly for the BSE, but I will own up to loving strawberry rhubarb pie.

My plan for tomorrow after work is to dig up where the anise hyssop has taken over. That is also a voracious spreader that I was absolutely believed would stay put, because nature does what I want it to do all of the time, right? I’m going to pot up a large amount of it and smother the rest with cardboard, since rain is due on Wednesday. What a noxious weed that is, but delicious nonetheless and also beautiful in bloom and a pollinator favorite.

The lemon balm is less obnoxious, but I may pot that up as well, along with the oregano. I may not. We’ll see how I feel about that after I do my best to eradicate the plague of anise hyssop. I’m considering deeply digging that part of the beds and filling it in heavily with annual zinnias and other delightful seeds gifted me from my favorite gardening Memphian and my beloved Mardi Gras friends.

I had some very, very old seed that I finally decided to cut my losses on, so I threw it in the front yard. If I am overrun with birdhouse gourds, I’ll remember my stepmother Nancy, who created lovely birdhouses of them in years past. I also threw some purslane, cumin, and chia out there, so we’ll see what comes of it. I’m going to try to save the loofah seeds and pot them up, but I’m not really hopeful, since the packages got wet at some point. Hope springs eternal, though.

What’s happening in your garden? Or are you exercising restraint until the last frost date? Restraint is not one of my strong points, but I have a pretty good time anyhow.