May Garden Update

May has been a month of endings and beginnings.

The weather in May was hit or miss. We had some cool nights in the 40’s which had me worried for some of the plants outside, but everyone did just fine. By the end of the month, the temperature leveled out and we’re hanging out around 75-90F during the day and 50-60F at night. I feel like this is a late start to the season, but what can ya do? Mother Earth does not accept phone calls or texts.

Harvest

By mid May I was able to harvest most of what actually grew over the winter. I planted a lot in October and had some success in the basement and even more once it warmed up enough to start putting everyone outside.

Nimbus kept asking for a carrot from the harvest.

I harvested:

• Carrots

• Spinach

• Kale

• Dill

• Peppermint

• Coriander

What Didn’t Grow

There were a lot of lessons learned over the past winter and a lot that I realized I still need to learn.

Cabbage

I started 2 pot with cabbage seeds in October since it’s a cool season crop. I had high hopes when I saw leaves and then the heads started to form. But the heads never did form. I got a small golf ball size head at one point, which then re-opened once the weather started to warm up. I think what I did wrong was that I over watered it and the basement wasn’t cool enough. It was around 70F with lows in the 50s over the winter.

Broccoli

So I had really high hopes for the broccoli as it’s one of my favorite vegetables. Once I started seeing the small shoots start looking like broccoli I was really excited, but then it flowered. And flowered more. I think this was an overwatering problem as well, but it requires more research for next winter.

Coriander

After being outside a bit in April, the Coriander went to flower and then it got infested with aphids. As it’s season is pretty much over and this isn’t an herb that I use often, it goes in the compost bin. I might try growing this again later, but I’m not sure.

Lighting

I think that for the basement setup, I am going to need at least 1 more light and a way to extend the light lower. A lot of my seedlings were leggy from stretching to reach the light.

Watering

I am a creature of habit. So I watered ALL the plants consistently. Like every other day. And that was a problem. Even though I had really good drainage, I was still overwatering most of the plants. I think that I am going to be going back to the app called Plant In, where is tells me when to water each plant. I want my plants to flourish, not always be swimming. This is especially important for when they’re inside because there isn’t much wind or heat to remove the excess water.

What I planted for Spring

As coworkers have told me, the last frost in the Shenandoah Valley is Mother’s Day. Which seems really late in the season to me, but hey, I’m from Florida.. what do I know about frost?

Around the end of April and beginning of May I planted a lot of new herbs and a few vegetables. I had some herb seeds from this vegetable and herb muti-pack that I bought on Amazon. But I wanted more tea herbs. So I ordered this Medicinal and Tea herb multi-pack with 35 herbs for me to grow. As much as I wanted to grow them all, I realized I wouldn’t use them all.

All of the herbs are planted in the basement first before moving outside

Here is what I started and how they’re coming along:

Herbs:

• More Chamomile. I love chamomile tea, so I started 4 more pots of chamomile. Right now they’re bushy little boys, and apparently are in need of some thinning. My last chamomile got superficial mold on the leaves from me watering from the top. Lesson learned.

• More Rosemary. My rosemary survived the winter in the basement and is now showing new growth. But I really like rosemary in cooking and for its scent in baths. So I started 1 more pot, but apparently got a seed in a chamomile pot, so now they’re growing together.

• More Lavender. I want to have a bunch of lavender surrounding my house in the future. It’s also great in tea, food, and smells amazing. So more is more. Over the winter, the plant that I had didn’t do the greatest and is need of some help. The leaves are browning, likely from the over watering mentioned above. The older plant is a Lavandin plant, which is known for its oils more so than it’s flower. I didn’t realize this, so I planted some English Lavender.

• Fennel

• Calendula

• Echinacea

• Lemon Balm

• Mountain Mint

• White Yarrow

• Marjoram

• Oregano

• Thyme

• Hyssop

• Basil

Vegetables:

• Grapes

• Raspberries

• Strawberries

• Blueberries

• Bell Peppers

• More Tomatoes. I had 2 plants to survived from October of last year. Although they didn’t produce anything last year, it let me have them producing fruit early this year. But the birds keep eating them before I can get to them…

• Sunflowers. Kind of an herb, kind of a vegetable. But I want the seeds and petals, so I dunno where this fits to be honest.

• Cucumbers (pickling and regular)

• Beans

My goal with planting all of this is to have enough of a harvest to last me through the winter with making tea, herbal baths and cooking. Most of the herbs will be dried for later.

Early Successes

About half of the herbs that I planted at the start of May/ end of April sprouted. I ended replanting the ones that didn’t after about 3-4 weeks of waiting.

The fennel got really leggy, but might be able to survive now that he’s outside getting better lighting.

My tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and peppers all sprouted very quickly and are happy outside.

I’ve only been able to move a handful of the herbs outside as they aren’t big enough yet to handle the breeze that we get here. And I’m running out of space outside. It didn’t help that most started sprouting on a week where we got about 3 inches of rain, which is apparently rare for this area to have so much rain in such a short time.

I’m hoping that the second round of herbs that I planted will do well too.

What I’m Learning

I am going to be focusing on learning the specifics of the herbs and vegetables that I do have right now. I want to know their watering schedule, the sun preferences, when to harvest, and some of their uses. I will be documenting everything that I learn here on the blog, so keep an eye out!

I will most likely start with Lavender - both Lavadin and English- as this is one herb that I couldn’t even get to sprout in Florida and I don’t want it to die.

I will also be sharing some of the recipes that I’ve been making with herbs lately as well.

Looking Ahead: June

As we are finally coming into spring, some things that I will be paying attention to are:

• Watering schedules

• Too much sunlight/ heat

• How to prevent pests and other critters from eating everything before I can

Stay tuned for next months update!