May should be the month in which we start with the transplanting. The night starts to get warmer, usually over the growth range and there is no more danger of frost so seedlings are perfectly safe outside. Days are usually sunny and warm and we spend each free moment in our gardens. Well, not this year.
This year has been weird from the start. Actually, the past 3 years have been everything but average. The winters are mild with almost no snow, but the cold keeps on lasting all the way to the summer. This, of course, affects our seedling plans. Seedlings grow much slower and have to be kept inside for a longer period.
In normal years I’m done with all my seedling by the middle of May. The last ones to go out are peppers and tomatoes, but the rest is usually in the garden on May’s first days.
This May has been very moody and very rainy. In the first 12 days, we already got 80mm of rain and only a couple of dry days. What’s even worse is that we’re having insane temperature jumps. When there’s no rain temperature jumps to 30°C (86°F) and as soon as there’s a rainy day temperature drops below 15°C (59°F). The morning temperatures are mostly below 10°C (50°F) which means most seedlings would stop growing if I transplanted them outside.
Still, I did manage to transplant some of my seedlings. Last week I transplanted my chard and Brussels sprouts and some flowers. They don’t mind the cold and the seedlings were getting too big to keep them on the balcony.
Yesterday I’ve transplanted my tomatoes. They are in such a bad state that I really don’t care if they’ll grow or not.
I’m a tomato lover, I love all kinds of tomatoes and used to have hundreds of different varieties, but since 2019 my tomato passion went down the drain. Tomatoes love the warmth and dry weather and since 2019 we have had everything but that.
The past couple of years have been so bad that I’m considering giving up on growing them all together. I will buy some this year and I’m not sure I’ll sow any next year. There’s just nowhere to keep them during the winter.
While the tomatoes grow very poorly the grass is thriving. It’s just getting worse and worse each year. There are weeds everywhere and all I do is clean the beds. The rain isn’t helping me so most of the garden is too wet to do any cleaning.
The paths on the shady side are too wet to be cleaned so I just pull the weeds around the plants.
The situation with the grass and weeds is so bad that I started trimming the grass myself. In “normal” years trimming and mowing is done every 3 weeks, during the summer only once a month but with all the rain we’ve been getting we need to trim it every week. Usually, my hubby did the trimming and mowing, but now he just doesn’t have the time to do it every week. So I had to learn to use the trimmer. Luckily hubby bought an electric trimmer a few years ago so I’m able to use it. Our old petrol lawn trimmer is just too big and heavy for me to carry around. The electric one is also a bit too big for me, but at least it’s not as heavy and doesn’t shake so much. Still, I can trim only going upwards, if I go downwards it pulls me too much and there are really big chances I’d end up falling together with the trimmer (mower is not an option due to the bad terrain).
It takes me twice as much time to do the job, but I manage to do it. At least I don’t have to clean the whole garden with the hoe. Maybe June won’t be so rainy so the grass will grow slower.
Leave a Reply