April 15 means
more than tax day to gardeners here in the Piedmont of North Carolina. The more positive meaning to that date is: planting time in your garden!! It’s the last day of possible frost in this
area – actually it’s a 90% frost-free prediction. There have been a few years when a cold snap
showed up again, but for the most part the weather will remain above freezing.
So now the big planting time
begins. You might have planted an early
spring crop of lettuce, spinach, broccoli and cabbage. Here’s a shot of one of our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) gardens.
Everything came up nicely and
we’ve been picking lettuce like crazy. Hopefully we’ll have these vegetables on our table for another month or
so before the plants get tired of the hot weather and start to go to seed.
In the meantime, we’ve been
planting our vegetables that will be harvested all summer. Here’s a partial list of what you can plant now. I’ve noted (P) for plants or (S) for sowing
seeds directly into the soil.
- Tomatoes (P) – Regular, Roma,
Grape and Cherry
- Peppers (P) – Green, Jalapeno,
Chili
- Eggplant (P)
- Cucumbers (s) – Straight,
Pickling
- Squash (s) – Yellow Crookneck
or Straight, Zucchini
- Watermelon (s)
- Cantaloupe (s)
There are lots of varieties
of all these plants and seeds. One of my favorite activities is roaming around
a local garden store checking out their offerings. Instead of a large “box” store, go to your
locally owned stores. They often have
unusual varieties which have a story behind them. The owners also have lots of wisdom
concerning growing vegetables in the Carolinas.
That is worth its weight in gold.
Another option is going to
plant sales at local farmers markets. A
recent blog with Catawba River Views talked about the Belmont Farmers
Market. Farmers often have some
seedlings ready for purchase.
About Jeffie and Chris Hardin
– The Hardins left suburban life in 2001 for an 8-acre farm near Mountain
Island Lake. Now the Hardins and their children seek to grow half of their
family’s food and help others grow food, too.
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