What I’m Planting in the Springtime in a Northern Climate
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It’s that busy season, like flying mach 10 towards a defcon level 4 kinda busy. And particularly this week we are dealing with two missing dogs, the brain fog and constant thinking let alone all the searching, flyers posted, tears cried, calls being made has my mind completely being occupied. This video I actually recorded on the day they left which was on Monday but finally taking a moment to write this and get it published before it’s to late. We’ve contacted everyone and have been so worried but I need a distraction for a few moments. And yes I would love your prayers that they are returned safely. It’s not like them to take off and we started calling for them about as soon as they were gone but with no trace we are left with hoarse voices and tired brains.
Onto the topic at hand- let’s take a look at what my garden looks like during the early parts of May here in Northern Michigan.
The weather has been very pleasant to be out in – working hard, tan lines are already forming and the dirt under my fingernails will stay present until late fall.
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Strawberry Crowns – we’ve added 200 more plants to the front garden (about 150 or so in my herb garden already). I decided to not plant in mounds as I feel like the water just runs away from the plants and the berries like water to grow. We also heavily mulched the area with wood chips & pieces of bark from when the husband cuts and splits wood for our wood boiler this stuff all falls off. Do not till this kind of wood in as it’ll tie up the nitrogen (the plants need that food) as the wood is breaking down. But applied on top is just fine, it takes long for it to break down and it’ll help with weed suppression. win win! This year being that they are crowns we will pluck the 1st blooms, some will pass us by so I”ll use these Strawberries for snacking & kombucha as well as freeze them for smoothies during the winter. This year we bought from a localish place but I have had great success from Organic Heirlooms Gardens online.
Asparagus – We also added in more asparagus to our small patch that we finally were able to grow!! We’ve tried in many locations and finally got
some to actually come up for the 3rd year in a row, so I picked a few of them for dinner.
Garlic – These were planted in October of last year but it’s fun to show how wonderful they are doing. Looking forward to Garlic Scapes in June and then harvesting in July. The scapes form if you are growing hardnecks which I do and you can fry them up for Fried Garlic Scapes that’s a really nice treat! I also use them in soups, sautes, etc. They are easily frozen for a later use as well. Buy from: Organic Heirlooms Gardens online. Want to learn how to Grow Your Own Garlic for FREE click HEREÂ
Lettuce – Using my hoop house as my “Self Seeding Salad Bar” also known as some lazy gardening! I’ll eat from the lettuce and some will always go to “seed” which is now coming back up all by it’s self, how cool is that? I also went ahead and planted a few different kinds as well both inside the hoop house as well as in between the garlic & asparagus. Also planting dill, rosemary, cilantro, and radishes. I buy my lettuce seeds from Baker Creek at www.rareseeds.com
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Fertilizer/Compost – We’ve also took our compost from the palleted area and placed it in a big ol pile in the garden. It’s not completely broken down and it consists mainly of pine shaving & chicken poop. Good ol liquid gold as its’ often referred to. So what we’ll do with it this year is apply it near the plants after they have been planted so it can do a slow release of organic fertilizer. Chicken poop is high in nitrogen, which is good and bad. At first its’ too high so it’s called “hot” and will burn your plants, overtime with several freezes it will break down and fantastic for the garden. This has been sitting there for months up to a year so it should be fine, but since there’s lots of pine shavings and not completely broken down we’ll use it as a top dressing for the plants. I’m pretty excited for it!! I mean who doesn’t get happy for poo, am I right? 🙂
