While You Were Away: DOA In The Garden

 

I tried so hard not to overspend this season, as I did last year.  There I was, at various favorite garden centers and it's as if I was starved for beautiful plants.  So much went in the basket.  

My overall plan was to look for a few sun things, a selections of herbs that I would actually use, some veggies I'd actually eat, and for flowers, things that cater to my mostly shady yard: begonias, coleus, and caladiums.

It was always the plan to pot everything up, and have them on shelves and stands off the ground to minimize pests like rabbits and squirrels attacking, and let's not forget about the predictable late season moles/groundhogs which just stream into the yard and garden, even the raised beds, pushing plants up out of the ground. Agh.

The weather has been mostly in the 50s and even 40s day and night in May.  All my warm weather plants have been put out on days when it was 60 or over, then brought in at night to avoid those cold night temps. As I get more things potted, I've more to carry in and out.

A nice set of lights my husband hung near the workbench a couple of years ago for me has provided light for them on cold rainy days.

Here we are, June at last, and after a few days of over 60 nights, we're going back in the low temp tank for the first nights of June.  I'm gonna dieeeeee.    

Mr DOA is the BEST though, and he's got a plan for adding a couple more shop lights in the garage (we already had the lights) to help my babies stay happy and healthy till it warms up for good.

While pondering this lighting problem, I was remembering a light stand my husband put together years ago from a plan in Fine Gardening magazine.  Even I throw things away eventually, so I'm not finding the plans.  The stand is simple and has ample space for my pots this cold spring, with lights.  I found this link to the A Way To Garden blog stand which is a dead ringer for the old stand.  

https://awaytogarden.com/big-rig-my-circa-1989-seed-starter-stand/

And if miraculously I regain my whole house again someday, I can use it for seedlings again in the winter. 

Tuesday May 31, 2022

We had about seven days with temperatures above 60 at night. I was able to leave my plants all in the garden at night. And then it would be June, and I’d be home free, reliably warm weather, and I could plant that squash which would like to sprawl in the sun, and no more in at out with several dozen pots a day from the garage to the garden. Except, from tonight through at least June 9th, the forecast is once again in the low 50s at night with a couple of 40s. We needed more lights in the garage, and we had the shop lights, so my husband got one set over the workbench today, and we will try to get another set up for the long haul of cold nights.

I’m also putting the plants in trays so they can be watered as needed if there are days they can’t go outside. Everything was out Monday night with the huge storms and torrential rains, but as I was moving plants in, I could see some were bone dry! Impossible.

Here are my garden pictures from the last couple of weeks. We need mulch for the gardens, but I want everything weeded before we put that in. It’s hard to move to the next thing the garden needs when we keep getting smacked backwards by the weather. Onwards!