In one of Pratchett’s best novels, Nightwatch, Sam Vimes travels back in time and takes part in the “Glorious Revolution” (twice, actually), with its motto of Freedom, Reasonably Priced Love, and a Hard Boiled Egg, and its symbol of lilac in bloom, which happens on the 25th of April. I remember Caine being very fond of that day, posting pics of lilac. For me, living in a place where spring comes earlier than North Dakota and wherever Pratchett lived in the UK, by that time, the lilac had already bloomed, taking its sweet perfume with it.
Except this year, with its extraordinarily cold April. This year, the lilac has not yet dared to open its flowers.
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Most nights still had freezing temperatures and lots of plants are four weeks behind their usual schedule, which creates a problem for your dedicated hobby gardener: I planted the seeds according to the usual timeline, and most beds are also ready, only that it’s way too cold to plant anything outside:
©Giliell, all rights reserved The garden as o two weeks ago. The lower terraces are ready for planting, but the weather isn’t.
This means everything is still inside, although I usually carry about 50 plants outside in the morning and carry them back inside in the evening. Say hello to the cocktail tomatoes.
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I’m also running out of pots, because most of them have now been replanted three times and had to ask my mum for planting pots. What I really couldn’t keep inside for longer is the squash, so I planted it outside, hoping it would survive. By now, none of the plants look happy, some of them also don’t look alive:
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I can only hope that it will regrow those leaves, otherwise the squash will be entirely shop bought this season. As they were last year, when all my plants insisted on having male flowers only.
In the meantime I’m taking joy in the growth of my corn. Intellectually I knew that in order to get that high, it had to grow like mad, but knowing and seeing are two different things.
The two upper terraces in the garden will become “milpa” beds, also known as the “three sisters planting”, an old central American planting technique where you plant corn, beans and squash in the same area (hopefully the squash will survive…). The corn provides stability for the beans to grow on, the beans provide nutrition for the ground, and the squash protect the soil from drying out and being washed away. This was the little one’s idea and I must say, the idea of fresh corn on the cob is intriguing. So, cross your fingers for warmer weather and surviving squash (also the fucking slugs have been at it already. There’s a whole garden for them to eat, they can’t tell me they need to eat my squash).
Do you cover the outdoor plants when it gets cold?
Crossing fingers for you! We had the three sister in my parents garden for a while, but the corn usually did not like our soil. Best of luck!
We are slightly warmer here and I tried the tomatoes on the balcony as I ran out of medium sized pots to replant them. I hope they survive… .
That squash looks frozen.
Mine did not go beyond the epicondyles barely above the ground stage.
Chigau
In front of the house : yes.
In the backyard : no. I can’t uncover them in the morning (not risking to break my neck on the frozen stairs) so they would be covered until the afternoon.
Charly
Yeah, I just hope that the roots are still OK and it will come back.
They grew so nicely!
@Giliell, I do not know how much experience you have with pumpkins and frost. I do have a lot, since I live essentially at the foothills, so I will say something, even if it might not be of use to you personally:
The leaves are definitively dead. The roots are probably OK, but that might not be enough. Important is if the buds at the base of the leaves are still alive. If those are frozen, no amount of healthy roots will save them. Judging from the picture, there might be still a chance, but another night’s frost will surely kill what’s left. A good sign is that the leaf stems and the stalk are standing and AFAIK not glassy or shriveled.
We never plant pumpkins outside in the open unless we can be reasonably sure that they won’t be hit by a late frost. And if a late frost threatens anyway, we put a bucket filled with dry moss over them for the night, to shield them from the worst.
This year I am alone for all garden works, so all our pumpkin plants are still in the hothouse in pots, and as I said already, they barely started growing due to the very cold weather.
It’s been a cool spring for our area, but we never plan to plant much before the May 24th long weekend. We’re still several weeks away from any lilac buds, too.
I’ll keep good thoughts for your tender plants.
Charly
Yeah, as I said, this year’s weather has wreaked havoc on whatever plans I had. Covering them isn’t really practical, so they have to live or die with what they get.
I want a greenhouse. At least a small one for pregrowing. But I’m hopeful for the tomato house. Now that we’re finally using all the planting stones, the space is clear.
avalus
Hoping for the best. I’ll mix my topsoil with lots of planting soil. It’s very sandy and not all plants like that. I tried to grow carrots one year and it was a disaster since they just couldn’t push down. Peppers otoh love it.
And then a hailstorm crashed on the tomatoes while I was at work…
… and blew 2 of my tomatoes out of their grow-box. D:
Crazy weather.
@Giliell, that sucks :-(
We did not have a hailstorm, but extreme winds. They uprooted one bonsai and damaged the roof, but other than that hopefully no damage.
Damn, Charly, I hope the damage is easily fixed.
I still have hope for the tomatoes and it didn’t affect all plants, as they are under the roof in front of the house. But three of them really look bad.
Sorry for the tomatoes and squash. I think it’s not too late to sow new squash seedlings? Even if a severely damaged plant survives, it will take a lot of time to start growing properly again.
Also, I thought the Lilac Day is 25th May, not April? There are different lilac species and hybrids/cultivars with slightly different flowering times, but the most common species is relatively early. Here it mostly flowers in early June, sometimes late May.