It is traditional in the South to plant your garden on Good Friday.
I hadn’t expected to be able to do any planting yesterday, but it turned out to be a warm dry day so I was happy to spend much of it putting seeds in the ground.
I don’t like to have an entire garden of English peas come in all at once, so I planted half of it two weeks ago and the rest yesterday. We plant the Alaska variety. They’re delicious, mature quickly and don’t need any trellising. After making the rows I flatten them with the rototiller and plant double rows in each bed, about one foot apart. That way when the vines start growing they can grab onto each other.
I also got started on our potato garden. Ideally I would have planted them last week, but yesterday was a fine day for doing it. We’re growing nothing this year but Yukon Golds, our favorite.
And look what else nature has begun offering.
Good Friday usually happens in mid-April, but because Easter is a movable feast (based on the lunar calendar) it can come around as early as March 21, meaning this year it was nearly as early as it can be. While I can appreciate the symbolism of it, it wouldn’t be wise to plant beans and tomatoes this early, tradition notwithstanding. Out of curiosity I asked my mother if my grandfather would have planted his garden yesterday, even if Good Friday came this early in the year. Without hesitation she said yes.
Nevertheless, we’ll wait a little while longer.
I bought some nice, new asparagus at the farmers’ market Wednesday, and thought of you while I ate it: wondering if you were getting any yet. I’m so glad the answer is yes!
Our farmers’ market’s doing so well they are holding it on Saturday and on Wednesday from 3-6 now. It’s great for me, since it eliminates the problem of either skipping the market on Saturday, or delaying any out-and-aboutness until after about 11 a.m.
Happy Easter!
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And a very happy Easter to you as well!
It’s great to hear that your market is doing so well. I dream of thriving farmers markets in every community.
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Is that a lone asparagus spear, or are there others coming up too?
I look at your ploughed fields and think about your grandparents and their parents who might have had to much of that by hand pushing a manual plough. We have come some way, eh?
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It’s early for asparagus here. There were about a half dozen spears in the garden yesterday and another half dozen or so today. In a couple of weeks hopefully they’ll all be coming up.
Just a couple of generations ago I would have had to hitch up a mule to plow that furrow.
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Dearest Bill,
That garden soil you have looks so rich! You did well yesterday for planting the part you did.
Asparagus this early is also a yummy and welcome addition.
Sending you hugs for the Easter Weekend🐣
Mariette
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We usually start looking for asparagus around the beginning of April and sometimes it’s later than that. It was nice to see it coming in so early this year. Fresh-from-the-garden asparagus is one of the best treats of the year.
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Looking good. I’d wait too…
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We don’t usually put out tomatoes, peppers, squash etc. until the first week of May. While it could be done in mid to late April without great risk, there’s no way I’d try it this early.
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Bill, even though we are having some nice warm days and nights the threat of killing frost lingers until May 15th. Even if the plants are out and it doesn’t freeze the temps in the upper 30s will not promote growth. Smaller plants that are put out in May will quickly catch up to the plants put out in the colder weather so it just doesn’t pay to get too rambunctious about setting out plants. Even potatoes need a ground temperature of 50 degrees or better to inspire them to start their journey to harvest. I will begin planting onions, cabbage, radishes, and lettuce April 1st. Then it will be work on Income Tax time.
Have a great Easter.
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Good point about the plants catching up. Sometimes folks get so anxious that the put them out early hoping for an earlier harvest, only to have theirs come in the same time as the ones put out at the usual time.
Your dates are about a month behind ours.
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In Maine, Memorial Day weekend is the date for planting vegetables such as beans, tomatoes, and peppers. Unless you have a hoop house, you don’t plant anything the end of March 😉
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I’m reading an excellent book now by gardeners in Vermont. I’m enjoying learning about New England gardening. Honestly, it makes me glad for our relatively long growing seasons. 🙂
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The northern New England weather is what makes us a hardy lot 😉
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Peas, potatoes and asparagus – yippee!
I finally got the asparagus I grew from seed transplanted out at our farm and spears are already starting to pop up but we’ll have to wait until next year to begin harvesting any. I will be planting potatoes soon – here in the very moist PNW we can’t plant potatoes on the traditional day of St Patrick – we wait until sometime in April. Given the next five days will be sunny and dry – I might get them in the ground this coming weekend along with some peas.
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We’ve just got a few spears coming in now. The asparagus avalanche should begin in about a week.
I decided to significantly expand our patch and I have 600 crowns set to arrive from a nursery any day now. We got 2 inches of rain last night leaving the garden where they’ll be going a muddy, clayey mess. Hoping it dries out in time.
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that is SIGNIFICANT! Good luck with the planting out.
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