You wouldn’t know it was April these first few days. April fool’s day was living up to its name. A morning of freezing rain and just drismal yuck, only in the afternoon to be fully sunny and the temperatures near sixty. Is this a sign of the things to come? Resiliency must be part of the plan.
The snow is melting and with the rain yesterday I am actually seeing action. The Narcissus are easier to spot, the crocus are blooming in the shrub border, the bluebirds are checking out the nesting boxes and the gardener, holy moly, a whole lots of balls are in the air.
Let’s start with tulips. You know that the tulips were planted mid October, then they sat in the cooler until mid January when I started to haul out four crates a week. Well, tada! The dirty room is now officially empty of crates, and believe me, this is a very weird feeling. Even the dogs are thinking something is wrong here. No tulips to tiptoe around. Didn’t Tiny Tim do a song about tiptoeing around the tulips or was that someone else? Well, no more tiptoeing in the dirty room around the tulips till next year.
Going, last four, going empty, gone last one out the door!
What this all means is this Friday will be the last of the forced tulips! There will be an unfortunate lull for a week or two, but then the farm will be gang busters with tulips again. Hopefully Shelly’s experiment/project will solve this gap problem next year, but I am waiting to see.
Meanwhile, the high tunnel is completely planted, the second crop of stock went in on Wednesday along with the Icelandic poppies. The ranunculus and anemones are looking good, as is everything else planted. As soon as the snow finishes melting in the garden, and the soil has a chance to breath, the first batch of sweet peas will be planted out along with all of the perennials and rest of the cool flowers that all have been patiently waiting in the greenhouse. They are saying “Plant me please!!!”
The first BIG sowing of the summer annuals starts this week. The now empty tulip space in the dirty room will soon be filled with all the dahlia tubers that have been keeping company with the tulips in the cooler and are now feeling lonely so they will get hauled up to start sprouting, then dividing, then planting out at the end of May. Is that a run-on sentence? I feel as though I am a run-on crazy flower grower.
I will let you catch your breath, and I will leave you with this photo of the tulips that went out to grace your homes last week.
It is going to be a cold one tonight they say, so I am off to “put the pajamas on the babies” In other words give them some added protection. So I am handing you off to Steve.
Until next week, Allie