Tomatoes! (Rawhide! Did I just date myself? Oh well.)
Yes, I said TOMATOES. In early April. In the Midwest! I know, I know, you're thinking I'm nuts. I think I'm nuts.
Our last frost date is April 19th and historically, it cannot be trusted. You really don't plant any summer crops until Mother's Day. BUT, I've checked the month forecast and it shows no freezing temps at night at all. Everything is mid 40s and higher. So I'm taking the risk.
If there ends up a frost advisory, I will get them covered. Tomatoes can handle that. (Peppers cannot.)
I haven't even planted my corn yet and I have 4 of the 20 tomato plants I bought in the ground! All the onions and garlic are planted. All the cole crops are planted. About a third of the potatoes are planted.
It's gonna be like Idaho around here this year. My word. I've been given and given and given potato sets. Handsome is trying to get his 50 pound bag sowed. I had two 10 pound bags of mini potatoes, a chitted out bag of russets and all the leftover Yukon Gold potatoes from Handsome's crop last year. Bestie just gave me about 30 more pounds of both purple and red potato sets! Atleast potatoes are easy and I was able to find room. Now just to get the work done. The biggest thing is mulch.
Mulch on the entire garden is HUGE for me. I have to plant and mulch basically at the same time. If I don't, I end up with a weedy mess. Most all my early season veggies are going in the previous wildflower bed and that area was completely bare. I was only able to get a couple of the beds built in it last year and no mulch happened.
This year has been much better, strength wise. I've talked before about the change in my body and how much I can do now versus what I was not physically able to do even a year ago. Let's not even mention how little I could do a couple years ago. I still feel like I could be stronger and that is my goal. The other day, (over the course of the day and not all at once) I was able to plant the garlic, 9 broccoli plants, and a few hundred onion sets. Then that evening I dug TWENTY $10 tomato holes! (I will explain the $10 hole in another post.) I couldn't dig more than 3 to 4 $10 holes last year on each day, let alone at once. And Ibuprofen is my friend way too often....
I feel like I almost need strength training. I'm an introvert so going to a class is out. I know myself well enough to know I won't stick to a routine with something like that at home either. I guess I'm just going to keep lifting and setting rocks for garden bed edges!
How's your garden growing?