April, Week 3

RuthAnn’s Weekly Garden Diary

Documenting Progress and Reflections in the Garden

My attempt to document the planting, growth, harvesting, and preserving of our family’s 8000 square feet of garden.

Northeast Iowa Gardening in growing zone 4

Last frost date May15, First frost date September 15

April, Week 3

Week 3 of April brought unstable weather, rain, severe thunderstorm warnings and even tornado watches and warnings. It also brought us one 80°F day that was greatly appreciated! We escaped most of the severe weather and only got rain and wind!

Tasks I worked on

Pruned the fruit trees a bit here and there. I am inexperienced at pruning and only pruned branches that are growing at odd angles. I would argue that pruning homestead fruit trees is not an essential skill for homesteaders. Commercial fruit trees are intensely pruned to improve the size of their fruit for profits! Taking some branches off helps the tree put more of its energy into the remaining fruit resulting in larger fruit. On a homestead, nutrition is often the only goal, and numerous smaller fruits are never discarded but always valued. In either scenario the longevity of the tree is valued and so simply taking branches that that could eventually weaken the tree are often good enough for me!
Trimmed the heirloom, ever bearing, red raspberries. Every spring I cut all the canes down to approximately 6inches or less. (This can also be done in early winter). Pruning this way will give us a large, late summer crop that continues until the first killing frost in the fall. Another method for pruning everbearing red raspberries for a smaller more continuous crop is to wait until the canes are leafing out then remove t any dead canes at soil level and trimming 4-5 inches from all healthy canes. This will give you a spring and summer harvest.
After cutting all the raspberries back I went to work weeding the area. The raspberries are at the edge of the garden and weed pressure is intense! Creeping Charlie, wire grass and dandelions were determined to choke out the raspberries. This was a big job, and I determined to stay focused and get it all done. I created a nice edge to make it easier to keep the yard from creeping in this summer.
I edged all the back yard flower gardens and cleaned up all around the perennials to prepare for a layer of compost.
I got all my bulbs from storage, Dahlias, Elephant ears, and Cannas, watered them well and set them into the sunshine on the south side of the shop to start ‘waking them up’. I planted some cannas and dahlias against the south side of the stone wall and crossed my fingers that they would stay toasty under the soil until danger of frost is past. I will wait a few more weeks to plant bulbs in open areas.

How the things I planted on April, 1st are doing!

¼ pound sugar snap peas (for fresh eating) *Sugar Sprint Germination VERY POOR
1 ½ pounds English peas (for preserving) *Penelope. Sprouted Beautifully!!!
5 pounds red potatoes (short season for fresh eating) * Red Norland Still no sign of sprouts (I fear they have rotted in the soil with these cold rainy weeks)
½ pound yellow onion sets (for adding to our fresh salads) 2-3 inches high
1/3 oz. radishes (for adding to our fresh salads) *French Breakfast Sprouted and have 3-4 leaves!

Notes:

This is the 3^rd year in a row that the Sugar Sprint snap peas have had very poor germination! This tells me that it is time to switch to a different variety of snap peas. I don’t have any clear explanation for this but I do know that this is encouraging me to find a variety of snap peas that I like and to begin saving my own seeds.

The Penelope variety of English peas has endured frost several mornings, echoing my grandma’s belief that each frost increases your yield. Frost and snow naturally prune the main growth tips, prompting secondary shoots, which produce more flowers and lead to bigger harvests.

Cold frame crops:

Cabbage *Early Dutch -SowRight Seeds
Purple cabbage *Red Acre -SowRight Seeds
Lettuce *Heirloom Blend – SowRight Seeds
Broccoli *Waltham 69 -Sowright Seeds
Cauliflower *Snowball – SowRights Seeds

These crops are all doing well, they are still very tiny and only now developing their first true leaves. I’ve been keeping the lid to the cold frame closed during colder days, trapping heat hoping to encourage them to grow faster because I want to transplant them into the big garden!

Reflections

The start to the garden season should fill me with hope and anticipation. The rain that falls should be filling me with gratitude. But with each cold day that passes and each inch of rain that falls, keeping me from the garden my anxiety seems to grow. When walks to the garden don’t feel like a devotional walk with the creator but instead make me feel burdened with all that is still to do! The Weeds keep growing no matter the temperature and I struggle with feeling like I am already behind! With each walk around the garden, I see a dozen things I want to do and need to do! It is almost enough to make me forgo my daily garden walks.

But then I remember.

My joy is not dependent upon a perfect gardening season! My joy comes from the Lord. I will walk through my garden and praise him through rain, thunderstorm, tornado watches, weeds, and whatever else may come. Because growing a successful and beautiful garden makes me happy and is a good thing, is not the BEST thing. The best thing of all is the joy of eternal life!