With almost normal rainfall, the salvia in our backyard exploded with flowers for returning hummingbirds. No butterflies or bees yet.
Around Thanksgiving, my daughter planted ranunculus corms in the front yard.
I wanted a striking show of bright red flowers for New Year’s.
Nothing doing.
It’s now almost Spring, and at last the ranunculi are thinking about blooming.
Dirt Du Jour points out that planting tomatoes right now won’t gain you a jump on harvesting because the plants will just sit there until the weather warms up, followed by the soil.
Despite having already planted a Roma and a pear tomato in my side yard, I agree that only warmer weather will bring on fruit set. (Volunteer tomatoes are growing handily in the back yard raised bed, but it gets more sun. I need to pull out those pesky critters.)
A variety of sources lecture that tomatoes should be planted outside only after all chance of frost is past. Here in Zone 10, we didn’t have a single hard frost all Winter.
Once past the danger of frost, the next threshold is a soil temperature of at least 50°-55°F to encourage growth.
Germination — setting of fruit — won’t start until 60°F is maintained.
Our local 10-day forecast (courtesy of weather.com) shows overnight lows between 50°F and 55°F — excellent for establishing new plants!
Daytime highs are trending down from 80°F. In another week, it’ll be a good ten degrees cooler.
So we won’t expect to see fruit set for a while.
That post at Dirt Du Jour also includes a list of upcoming plant sales, including this weekend at the Fullerton Arboretum:
March 19-21
Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale
The Potting Shed/Fullerton Arboretum
9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
www.fullertonarboretum.org
A couple of squares of corn plus one hill of watermelon are in the ground on the west side of our garage.
I was out checking earlier today.
One of the patches of corn should do fine, I think.
After today’s observation, I’m afraid that the other patch, along with the hill of watermelon, might not get enough sunlight. Unlike the rest of that side yard, it’s in the shadow of a wooden fence. There is a lot of reflected light, but little direct light.
Something to file away when I evaluate the test planting later in the year.
Weed Barrier
Mat from
Henry Fields
Seed & Nursery
I bought a bunch of packets of seeds in the last week of February. The first in the ground were Cherry Belle radishes. The seedlings are now nearing the thinning stage in the flowerbed on the west side of our garage.
Yesterday afternoon I made a valiant stab at weeding the remaining portion of that same sideyard.
I came up short.
About a linear foot of narrow bed next to a cement block wall remains. The wall divides our yard from the neighbors. That narrow bed has always been a problem, growing weeds better than most anything else. Some volunteer violets are fighting the weeds. With my help, I hope they will take over.
Across a cement walkway is a wider bed, where more violets have gained a surer footing south of my new tomatoes and radish seedlings. That bed is now mostly clear of weeds. A prominent exception is a volunteer sapling that will get uprooted today.
With a flower bed within a day or so of readiness, I hauled out the seed packets to choose what else to stick in the ground.
The two varieties of squash, zucchini and yellow crookneck, will have to wait until next month. I set those packets aside.
I’ll plant some more radishes, to stagger production.
A couple square feet of sweet corn beside the garage sounds like a fun test. I’ve never tried growing corn in that spot. The rest of the corn will go in the backyard in staggered square-plot plantings to keep us supplied for weeks.
Sweet corn is one of our vices. (Strawberries are another.)
Jack O’Lantern pumpkins take forever to harvest: 100 days! To be ready by the end of October, the seeds need to be in the ground no later than June. I might stick a single hill in with the test patch of corn now. In six weeks or so, I’ll put in another couple of hills in the backyard.
Sugar Baby watermelons take a long time, too — 78 days. Planted right now, they would be ready for the beginning of summer. I think I’ll try a test hill in the sideyard now. In a couple weeks, I’ll put in another hill in the backyard. Then a second hill a couple weeks after that. Maybe a third hill in a month.
We like watermelon.
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image: bromeliad blossom by cehwiedel
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