There is this way in which gardening warps my perception of time. It is spring right now, isn’t it, here in the northern hemisphere?
Yes, it is spring, and here I am, feeling rushed, afraid I am late for summer.
I am looking at my garden and I see winter taking over the beds I had reserved for summer. I see spring squeezed in a little corner, a productive little corner, and I am going nuts wondering where and how I am going to be able to fit summer. Right now, first week of May.
Two things conspired to mix up the order of the seasons in my garden: winter crops are progressing much slower than usual, occupying the ground far longer than planned, and a spell of cold weather descended on us just when I was scheduled to plant the summer crops. As a result I still have no room for tomatillos, melons, summer and winter squash and beans, as well as my next sowing of lettuce, arugula and some herbs. On the bright side I got peppers, eggplants and tomatoes in the ground.
It breaks my heart when I have to remove a perfectly productive crop in order to plant a future harvest. I am going to be doing precisely that this weekend. I am harvesting more than enough favas and greens right now. Enough of winter, I am late for summer.
May 7, 2010 at 3:00 am
All my winter crops bolted, so they are out and summer ones are in. If your winter crops are not bolting, maybe they are not winter-only crops.
Garden space is always a problem, no matter how large a garden is, I understand you there!
May 8, 2010 at 12:35 am
I haven’t had a lot of bolting yet, except on the brassicas. Those are bolting but often I keep them going until I have some other plant ready to harvest. I just cut off the flowering stalk and more leaves come up. This doesn’t work for things like cabbage, obviously.
What I find difficult is making sure that I have enough vegetables growing in the garden for today’s dinner, for two months from now and every day in between…
May 8, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Same here, there’s never enough space in the garden to rotate the vegetables, I have to fall back on containers to grow some of my crops. The worst part is my interest in gardening has grown and I want to grow just about any vegetable seed I can get my hand on.
May 9, 2010 at 9:58 am
That’s an idea, containers, but plants in containers need so much closer attention than plants in the ground… um…
May 9, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Succession planting is always a juggling act, I think. It is hard to pull up plants that are producing, that’s for sure. And just think – it won’t be long before it is time to start seeds for the fall crops!
May 9, 2010 at 3:33 pm
We are still in spring, don’t remind me about fall yet