It finally rained and I was able to get some plants out in the house garden Saturday (Friday was too hot). 3 different kinds of kale plus Baby-leaf spinach. The broccoli isn't looking too good in the flat, and will probably bolt right away so I decided not to plant that. I didn't seed the lettuce, carrots and radishes but will probably do that tomorrow. With a "Special Weather Statement" (that I saw after I'd put the transplants in) about heavy rain predicted that night for Litchfield County I didn't want to risk washing the tiny seeds right out of the ground - and I ran back out to spread some straw over the kale and spinach so they wouldn't be washed away.
Since it was too hot to put out the cool-weather crops on Friday, I potted up the rest of the peppers and more tomatoes. I'm planning on starting to harden off the tomatoes (10 day to 2 week process) on Wednesday after the cold front passes (the Brandywines have already spent a little time sunbathing last week). Let's hope the nights don't get (much) below 50 starting next weekend, I really want these to spend all day and a few nights outside by Memorial Day weekend so I can plant. My dad doesn't put tomatoes out or direct-seed any cukes, beans, etc. until the 30th but he's up in Hartland so it's even colder up there.
I had written this post on Sunday, was going to post it Monday (with a different title) after taking pictures, but today was spent re-mulching the strawberries and covering the hoops with tarps, covering the raspberries and blackberries with burlap, and the blueberry bushes (as many as I could) with old sheets, curtains, plastic 30-gallon totes, anything I could lay my hands on. You see, it's supposed to get to 32 degrees (or below with wind chill) here by 5am. All the berries are pretty hardy plants (though I did cover the ones we planted last April to coddle them a bit their first winter), but once they start blossoming, they won't set fruit after a frost/freeze. Hence the frantic preparations today. There probably won't be any wild blueberries, or any apples this year but I'm hoping the strawberries will pull through. We'll see in the morning.
