When I think about the numbers of plants that cycle through the season it astounds me. The peas that were planted out this past week numbered thirteen 98-cell trays… that’s about 1200 pea plants. That led me to start to calculate how many winter squash plants I would be seeding in the beginning of May. Would I have room for them all in my greenhouse? I came up with 88 50-cell trays each containing 2 plants. That’s about 8800 winter squash plants which would easily fill half the greenhouse. I repotted my pepper and eggplant starts. They have all gone on to 50-cell trays as well. That was 33 trays. That’s 1650 plants! I moved some of the cold-tolerant plants outside to make room and to harden them off for a week before I put them into the ground. The beets, chard and broccoli will all be ready for the fields this coming week. The first cucumbers and squash will not be far behind them. Even my early tomatoes are looking stocky. The squash, cukes and tomatoes will all go out on the warm “plastic” (made of corn) and be covered because there is certainly still time for a frost here.
At the end of the week, I walk past the barn and the intoxicating perfume of the crabapple tree in bloom reaches out to me and I drink in the fragrance. Its pink and white blooms are so pretty. Large carpenter bees hoping to make their homes in the barn swoop down to check me out. (I swear they make eye contact.) The killdeer birds are still attempting to nest in the middle of the gravel driveway. Our faithful dog, Boone, is discouraging them. The tulips are blooming (Boone only eats the purple ones), the blue iris are coming up, the peonies are emerging and the grass is growing that deep green that you see only in Spring. All is hopeful.
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