Summertime!

Flowering chives

Welcome to summer! Today is May 20, which it the last frost day for Greenwich! We actually "finished" planting the garden last weekend, after we saw there was no threat of frost in the forecast. The only plants we haven't yet planted are bush beans, which can't tolerate temperatures below 40°F, so we will plant them next weekend.

Most of the plants that we put out last weekend are still hardening off and haven't started growing yet. When the seeds are started indoors, the environment is ideal and there is no need for them to grow strong and hardy stems. Once they are placed outdoors, where the day and night temperatures vary drastically and there is wind and rain, they put all their energy into thickening their stems and strengthening their root systems for the first few weeks. Most of the seedlings are still in this stage right now.

Dwarf peach tree

The perennials that were planted last year are thriving. The chives started growing back in March and are magnificent now. The plants are about 24 inches tall, with large purple flowers. Last year, we planted the first of two dwarf peach trees (normal-sized fruit, small tree). It flowered back in March when we had the early spring (I think it almost hit 90°F!), but the frost killed the flower soon thereafter. We thought they didn't have enough time to get pollinated, but apparently they did! There are small, fuzzy peaches all over the tree now (they are kind of hard to see in the picture to the left, but they are there)! We don't expect they will be large enough to eat for a couple more years, but it is still exciting!

Kathy's pepper plant

One of my co-workers grows peppers in her garden that were given as a gift to her father many years ago. Her family has been saving the seeds and re-growing the peppers every year. She dries them and makes a potent seasoning. We weren't sure exactly what they were (tasted kind of like cayenne, but were smaller), until another co-worker discovered on the internet that they are chile de arbol peppers. She brought seedlings to the office last week and distributed them; we will see whose peppers grow the largest! Our plant from last week is shown to the right; kind of lame right now, but its still early!

Strawberries

Hopefully next week we will have more to show. The corn has started popping up, as have the radishes, beets, carrots, and some flowers.  We also planted some perennial flowers that we will show next week after they have recovered from their trauma. Most of the plants are still pretty small now, but within a month or so it will be almost too crowded to walk around the garden! Till next week...