Phew! We went on vacation last week (and I picked up a few organic gardening tips from a "farmer" at Colonial Williamsburg) and had to hit the ground running today. Sunday was spent unpacking, doing laundry, and grocery shopping, but I did manage to uncover some strawberries and pull the mulch away from the bases of the new blueberry bushes. It looks like the 2 varieties (Legacy and Bluecrop) that I was worried weren't going to make it are just a little later than the other (Patriot, though all 3 are supposed to bloom in May according to the tags). The wild blueberries have really started budding, though none of them have leaves yet.
The few leaves that had fallen before I put straw on the strawberries were rotting, though, and between the damage the deer had done to the foliage before I mulched, and the wet leaves/straw causing some rot, I'm not sure how the crop is going to be this year. I did pull all the mulch off the June-bearing berries today, and just covered with a light coat of dry straw (I put the wet stuff in the compost bin). There are quite a few green leaves at the end of the bed where I was running out of straw, so maybe we'll have some berries this year. The wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca) I transplanted from our lawn into a raised bed by the south basement door are greening up nicely, though I never bothered to mulch them at all. Lesson learned - next year I won't mulch so heavily no matter what the University of Maine says about using 6 inches of straw. It would probably have been better to uncover them earlier too.
The wild strawberries already have flowers (the deer didn't bother those), so we'll have our first berries in about a month, but those are tiny and not all that productive, so they get popped into our mouths as fast we we pick, though some make it into the house to enhance a bowl of cereal. They also usually come in about the same time as the blueberries.
Let's see, after I finished with the strawberry bed this morning, on to repotting the tomatoes I hadn't gotten to before vacation. Not good. The ones I had repotted in Espoma Organic Seed Starter (I lucked out on a sale on 32 quarts worth before we left) are huge and will need to be repotted again, and the White Russian kale has just exploded, but all the tomatoes and peppers I left in the original seed-starting trays look pretty pathetic. The Espoma has fertilizer and beneficial bacteria (mycorrhizae - please don't ask me to pronounce it!), but the other mix(es) I used don't.
I'm not going to mention any names, but I had some organic seed starter mix ( a big name brand, they seem to dominate the seed racks around here) left over from last year, the peppers were started in that and are hanging in there, though they really need to be potted up. I ran out of that brand and couldn't find more anywhere, so I got a bag of another organic mix (starts with a J) and mixed it with what I had to start the tomatoes. It looked like too much peat to me, and I was constantly watering it, so I warned my dad to keep an eye on those flats, they would need more watering than the others I'd repotted into Espoma. Well, the tomatoes in that mix, as well as the broccoli and spinach in the same mix, are pretty sad looking. I did find some long roots on the tomatoes, but the mix was so dry the root ball was just falling apart (OK, I had 2-3 tomatoes in some of the cells so I had to separate them anyway). I planted them deep in pure Espoma, soaked in warm water, and just have my fingers crossed now.
I put together another mini-greenhouse rack and potted up another 100 or so tomatoes into larger 6-packs today. The 90-odd peppers will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm beat, I'm filthy (so is the mudroom) and it's dinner time. At least hubby is grilling dinner (after picking up The Boy from track practice), so I just have to get side dishes ready and take a shower (once the bathroom is free - you know teenagers!).
Another lesson learned - "J" may make a good corn muffin mix, but their seed starter mix (as well as their peat pots - learned that years ago) is something to use only if there is no alternative, and once the seeds have germinated, it's time to get them out of that mix ASAP. It just doesn't hold any moisture. Seedlings don't need fertilizer until they've gotten their first true leaves, but they do need consistent moisture at the roots. Let's hope it's not too late for these plants (they aren't wilting, they just look like they were in suspended animation for 10 days).
