Another week, another rain period.

The weather hasn’t improved over the past week. Like the previous 2 months, we’re still in a relatively cold and rainy period. Every week we get rain from Sunday to Wednesday, and then sunny and warm until the following Sunday again. This kind of weather is excellent for grass and weeds, which are all over the place. Seedlings, on the other hand, are not happy.

Slow seedling progress

Seedlings are struggling. The bad weather and cold mornings are keeping me from transplanting. I have tomatoes already ready for transplanting, which are starting to turn yellow, due to their size and lack of food. I’m watering them with fertilizers, but they still need more space. Still, I don’t want to transplant them while mornings are so cold so we’re waiting.

Other seedlings, like cucumbers, tomatoes, and corn are far behind in progress and still germinating. I should already have seedlings ready for transplanting, but they are still too small to do any work. The germination prolonged from 10 days to almost 4 weeks, leaving me with a lack of growth time. Luckily the cold is also keeping the transplanting time away, so I’m guessing the seedlings will be ready in 14 to 21 days.

All in one day

Gardening the past couple of weeks has been under the motto: “Do as much as you can in two days”. Basically, I only have two days a week when the garden is dry enough for some serious work. This is why during week 17 I dug the entire garden and planted everything that was big enough in just a couple of hours. The brassicas and beans, which I planted a month ago are growing despite the lack of warmth. Everything that I’ve sown over April has also germinated and the garden is actually slowly filling up.

Last week I’ve done some more sowing and planting. The flowers which I sown in March are finally big enough to transplant them. I’ve planted them alongside the garden, together with the strawberries and some brassicas that I had left over. Most of the flowers are annuals, but the varieties should self-seed, so they should be here for many years.

On Saturday I also dug the under-wire area and planted some more beans. This area was filled with blackberries a few years back. Once we downsized the amount of blackberries this area was left empty so I thought that beans could enjoy this spot. The wire will provide the needed climbing area, and the shade from the blackberries should keep the plants from too much sun exposure.

Empty beds need chard

While I was planning this year’s garden I wanted to plant two beds with peppers. But, as always, the pepper seeds which I bought were terribly bad so now I have an empty bed in the garden. I decided to fill it up with some chard, beets, and onions that I’ve sown earlier. I’ve planted one part with chard and the rest is mixed up with onions.

Speaking of onions, my hubby cleaned the two orchard beds to help me out. There’s a lot of work in the garden and I don’t have enough time to do everything. The onions which I planted in February are now starting to fill up. Judging by their growth the orchard beds could be a good spot for a garden in the future. the onions are now exposed to too much sun, and this spot is protected from the wind and excess water.

Plans for next week

Since the weather forecast for the next 10 days is exactly the same as the previous 5 weeks, we can’t plan much. The only certain thing is that I will be cleaning the weeds, and mowing the grass. The rest of the work will wait for some warmer and sunnier weather. Hopefully, we’ll get some soon.