I tend to do all of my planting and gardening around the rain schedule. It is a little more planned now that I have an awesome google weather app, but before I guess I got pretty good at reading the signs. The ground is moister during overcast days, and quite frankly all the plants are perkier and the weeds are easier to pull before and after it rains. Having had at least two years of severe drought I am a bit frightened of this growing seasons momentum... there are plants sprouting up that I thought were dead! Plants that didn't even make an appearance last year; I was sure those hostas had been annihilated.
But I am very thrilled with the new plantings this year. I have asparagus sprouting!!!! I have dreamed and planned this moment for a long time and having only planted two or so weeks ago I am very excited. I am much more reserved about the seeds I am starting indoors. I keep eyeing them waiting for them to fail and disappoint. Last year was my first seeds starting success and I am having a hard time believing I can repeat that. But boy do I have seeds!! I am greatly limiting my direct sowing to only previous winners, such as: zucchini, squashes, peas, nasturtium, parsley, cilantro, and maybe marigolds. I can't remember how I started them last year.
Zucchini
These sprouted and grew fairly vigorously. They fought the good fight for half of the season, producing baseball bat sized melons until mid-summer when they succumbed to worms. Baseball bat sized, I kid you not. The small baby zucchinis are called courgettes, we didn't pick any that size because, well they grew way too fast. Last year was the first year we had any production, we have squash vine borers and they are mean and fight dirty. Typically you spray your plants after they flowered and hopefully been pollinated and hope that they eggs that the moths have laid do not hatch and bore into the stem of your plant unbeknowenst to you until it has been eaten from the inside out and collapses on the ground. I am an organic gardener so I don't do that. I usually don't put up with wimpy plants, they fight themselves or die. But I make exceptions, and have started companion planting. I contribute the limited success we had last year to nasturtiums. They are pretty and seem to do a good job. I plan to save the seeds of the most resistant variety this year.
Squash
They also sprouted nicely. And then died. I have extra seeds from last year and will try surrounding them with nasturtium. The nasturtium will at least be pretty. Zucchini seem to be naturally more hardy than squash.
Peas
These I don't really get, they seem to have a short season and little to no production. But they sprout and grow and are really charming and generally the first vegetable I get in the growing season. They are very tasty straight from the vine. They will be getting a sunnier, undisclosed location (well at least undetermined at the moment), this year.
Nasturtium
As I mentioned previously this is a hard working squash vine borer deterrent. It is also pretty and the leaves and flowers can be added to salads. They are too spicy for us. I really liked the milkmaid variety, it had cream flowers, but the variegated red and orange flowering variety was more prolific and hardier and lasted the entire season. Unfortunately frost killed the plants before they went to seed and I was unable to collect seeds. Maybe this year.
Parsley
Yummy, hardy and biennial. It came back!! I am going to plant an entire row this year and reseed it every year. At the end of the season it was mostly devoured by monarch butterflies, which was the first time they have visited our garden. It was delightful. But now I wince every time I eat parsley thinking that I could be eating butterfly eggs.
Marigold
I planted a lovely cream variety this year, it has a very nice fragrance and we had the occasional bouquet of marigolds and basil flowers. I was able to collect lots of seeds! These seemed to be a good companion plant to tomatoes, but did not keep the rabbits away from the soybeans.
Most of these plants have scheduled homes, I am trying to do crop rotations in addition to companion planting, but the limited number of vegetable beds and adding perennial vegetables have made things tricky. I still have a wish list, a must list, and desperately seeking a home list.
