Saturday, April 24, 2010

Time's up

Perhaps if I had an entire farm, crops would come to fruition, be harvested, and then be pulled and followed with a soil-building cover crop, while elsewhere, cover crops would be turned under and then followed with new, seasonally-appropriate crops.

Perhaps.

Or maybe it would be like my garden now, where plantings are pulled before they're completely ready, to be immediately followed with the ones which are outgrowing their pots.

I transplanted today.

Pickling cucumbers where the Melting Sugar and Oregon Spring snow peas were. I wasn't going to save seed from those, so out they went. Well, mostly.


Bolting yellow carrots up to make room for rainbow bell peppers.


Elsewhere I turned soil and weeded and put out the butternut squash, then placed the sunflowers between the potatoes. That should provide some much-needed aesthetic oomph, plus lovely cut flowers.

By then, maybe the sweet peas would be done, anyhow.



17 comments:

Ribbit said...

I wonder all of the time if I should sacrifice things to grow others. It's driving me crazy just about now since our spring came on so fast this year and a lot of the other things are bolting too early. :(

Unknown said...

If the plants would only follow schedules :)

Mr. H. said...

Sounds like a good plan, out with the old in with the new. Very pretty flowers.:)

Erin said...

Sweet peas are SO beautiful!

Susan said...

Good gardeners are always merciless with their plants, I think. I, a lousy gardener, can't bear to tear out anything that manages to survive under my care. I love that you planted sunflowers between the potatoes.

Kristin said...

Your so good about keeping your fingers in the dirt--and rotating crops. I can't seem to touch my garden that is flourishing right now. I'm so proud of trianglular swatch of edibles that I harvest there sparingly--just to keep it lush a bit longer. But I've got oodles of seedlings ready to go in--so I'll have to pull out my leeks, and eat a whole lot of mustard greens and chard very soon. I can't wait to see your sunflowers!

chaiselongue said...

Lovely sweet peas! I don't seem to be able to grow them here - too dry maybe - but I used to in Wales. Spring's a difficult time, isn't it? Deciding what can go to make room for the new plants. Exciting, though.

Chandramouli S said...

Wouldn't sunflower roots choke the potatoes? Just wondering...
Those Sweet Peas are riotous!

Christina said...

I have a tower of sweet peas that I should pull to plant some of my other goodies, but they're in their absolute prime and I just can't make myself do it.

Like you, I'm pulling things before I'd like to, but the earth isn't going to stop spinning, so I've got to get them in while I can. I don't know how much longer the sweet peas will last . . ..

Stefaneener said...

Ribbit, I know. A few hot days and everything changes. I ended up giving away some seedlings as I just didn't have room.

GrafixMuse, can you think of a good way to do it?

Mr. H., it has to happen. I'm a sucker for pretty flowers, but only if I can cut them, apparently. Weird.

Erin, this is my first experience. They smell nice, too, and we have them in the house all the time now. Plus the one rose I grow is in bloom, so there's some of that too.

Susan, I'm just so interested in what's going to come next, and I get tired of things. With about six pounds of snow peas frozen, the "keep it all right as it is" vibe is lessened.

Kristin, you may just have a different climate, too. I'm feeling pushed out here.

Chaiselongue, I'm not sure they're supposed to grow here, but they had a lot of rain this winter, so that may be part of it. I saw them grown in a municipal garden and thought, "Aha." I find all sesson's changes sort of challenging.

Chandramouli S., welcome. I hope not, but I guess we'll find out.

Christina, it's probably good to bow to the inevitable. Plus, tomatoes and peppers are a lot of fun around here. I'm just hoping my basil behaves.

Just Jenn said...

I love sweet peas... I really should grow some. They smell like my child hood. Your poesy is lovely! ...and good for you for pulling plants when they should be pulled (even if it's kinda hard!) ;^)

Daphne Gould said...

I have the same issue. My fall planted spinach is still producing, but I needed to put in the broccoli. I interplanted. I'm hoping that works well. The spinach will be gone in a couple of weeks anyway.

Zach said...

I agree with you 100%. maybee if you owned a farm you would be ontime with everything. But When I interned on an organic farm last summer, this was not the case. Famers are humans too, and miss plant deadlines as well!

Unknown said...

@Steff
Unrelated to the post, but came across this link here that you had commented on- http://www.growinggroceries.com/?p=343

I was researching growing Naranjilla because my family is Ecuadorian and loved the juice that came from it whenever I visited my family that lived there.
I know you were skeptical that it was just another tomato, but it tastes like a mixture of orange and lime, with probably some other fruits in there when sweetened with sugar.

kitsapFG said...

I always end up with garden bed conflicts. Sometimes I pull things earlier than I would otherwise,...sometimes I find another place to plant the other item.

Stefaneener said...

Jenn, hi there! They do make an attractive bunch, huh? I feel like a rich girl when I go out there and come back with a handful of lovelies. I'm not very sentimental, I guess, so it's out with you lot frequently in the yard.

Daphne, I'm with you. Some of my peppers are among lettuce right now. They kind of look like Lilliputians.

Zach, thanks for the reminder. I've never seen a perfectly maintained farm, myself. They all have odd corners -- the equivalent of junk drawers -- and I'm sure they're running behind and ahead just like me. Just on a much bigger scale.

A, thanks for following up.

kitsapFG, flexibility seems to be key.

Just Jenn said...

Yeah, I'm *trying* not to be such a stranger! =)