I know, it is only Wednesday, May 12, but there is something about that date...May 15...that carries with it a cloud. Almost literally. We here in NJ are supposed to wait until May 15 to do any planting. I assumed I just jumped the gun this year out of boredom waiting for my shoulder to heal. But, having looked back in my gardening journal, I found out that, well suffice it to say that there MAY be a pattern with me here.
My sister says for sure. And she has only participated in this one growing season, but in her humble opinion, she thinks there is most definitely a pattern of early planting. OK, so I had my surgery Mar 15. Totally out of commission for a week, then slowly recouping. So let's say I made it to mid April before getting the itch. So Mid April, given the weather pattern thus far, seemed completely appropriate to put a FEW things around here. We had summerlike weather the entire month of April til this point. So I planted a few things here and there...oh....that's not completely true at all. In fact, I planted very little. It was my poor sister Terri who planted nearly everything the first time around. (Did that just pop out of my mouth like that! The FIRST time around...yes, there was a second time around). OK, so with that said, it got cold. Now, if I could have, I would have pulled all those plants in myself but because of my shoulder, I couldn't...so I got Terri. And she pulled them all in. Then in the beginning of May it got beautiful again and Terri put them all back outside.
And then I decided it was time to plant more things. So we went...that is...Terri and I. She says that I do the driving, she just pushes the petals and steers the wheel...But we came home and we planted more. This time petunias, herbs, tomatoes, lettuce...the hearty stuff. Then if you can even believe it, a frost came last week AGAIN.
What did I do? No, I didn't panic...I called Terri...and Terri brought all the plants that she planted the second time around in the house along with the plants that never had a chance to make it to a pot before the frost. This is where I started...
That May 15th date. I met a man recently. His name is Joe. He must be late seventies. I was grazing Buddy on what I thought was public property but apparently it wasn't. It is Joe's property. This very kind old man came over to me and said, "Oh, I thought you were my daughter Jill with her horse.". I said, "No, I'm just grazing my boy trying to beef him up and thought this was part of the high school". "Nah" Joe answered, "it's my property and I want you to bring him here ANY time to graze him. I'm going in to prepare the garden". "Oh, you garden?" I asked. "Are you planting anything fun?". "No," Joe answered, "I'm just going to weed and prepare the soil".
What a multitude of lessons there. I wasn't Jill (made me sad) but I did remind him of her and apparently that made him happy - which made me happy. Also, Joe was old and wise enough to know that he should only prepare the garden, not plant the garden, before May 15.
So, that is what the pictures are...the round of frost survivors...and some are questionable at that...
Next year, will I wait? I hope so, but given that I seemed to do the same thing in 2007 and 2008 (2009 is missing altogether) and 2010, I might....I just might not make the deadline (or early line) next year, either...
Until next time...
