Day neutral or ever-bearing types of strawberries start blooming soon and will bear fruit right away this year – in June. And they will keep right on blooming all summer into fall. I was even surprised by the few berries I picked last November. Day Neutrals bear fruit for a long time but the heaviest crop is still in late June with fewer berries after that.
When you start tomatoes from seed they get their second set of leaves in about three weeks. This is the perfect time to transplant seedlings.
It’s time to start chitting! And I mean that in the best possible way. If you have been growing your own potatoes you know what I am talking about. Take the potatoes out of storage and let them sprout in daylight.
Potatoes kept in the dark form long unwieldy sprouts. If yours have done that then the only thing you can do is pull them out of the cupboard or storage area right now and break off all those long sprouts. Then get to work chitting them.
Have you got plans to buy a clump of pussy willows at the next seedy Saturday or market? Did you get a piece of curly willow in your Valentine’s bouquet? Or maybe, like me, your neighbour gave you some really amazing raspberry or rose twigs after they finished pruning their plants. Here is how you can turn a woody plant into 100 woody plants easy peasy.
It’s all happening in the soil, or as grape growers say “in the Terroir.” Wine grapes grow better on special but not always better ground. Grape like grape ground. This is stony rocky soil that can barely raise a radish yet it is perfect for grapes. Why is that? Grapes are a perennial crop so the plants are not pulled out and replanted ever year. So there is time for the active biology in the environment to slowly eat the soil.
Our fresh pea and basil sprouts grown indoors had the sweet tender taste of garden peas and fresh basil. We serve them with salad or all on their own with a splash of olive oil and sprinkle of sea salt. If you haven’t grown your own micro-greens yet what are you waiting for? It only takes a week! And because the easiest micro-greens to grow are pea shoots I am providing the guidelines here. They taste exactly like peas and only take a week to eight days to serve fresh with dinner.
