Garden Update: April

Spring is finally here! In all it’s confused “warm and cold spell” glory. As of writing this all the snow down here is gone. Of course in higher elevations there’s still many feet of snow, but we are finally seeing apricot trees blooming and forsythia, tulips and dandelions and catkins.

At the beginning of April the big garden was covered in snow. We spent a day removing snow and finally got the plastic back on the high tunnels after another week of letting several feet of snow melt out. After that it was on to some actual gardening!

We got the onions in the ground! Then of course several days later it got cold again and we had to put plastic over the onions so they were inside a high tunnel covered with second layer of protection. Since then we’ve held off on doing anything else as the temperature between day time and night time have fluctuated way too much.

However, I finally made a judgment call and planted our potatoes. We’ve finally reached a point where night time temperatures in the tunnels are stable enough we can put out the brassicas. These poor plants sorely needed to get in the ground.

We’ve planted out the cabbages! Don’t you love how brassicas have a waxy coating on their leaves that makes water pool up?

The kohlrabi are really starting to look like their grown up selves in miniature. Many are the size of large marbles. Now that they are in the ground it will only be a matter of 3-4 weeks for them to size up and be ready to eat!

The fruit trees are leafing out or blooming. The herbs are just starting to put out new growth and I’ve found a few strawberry flowers. This year the season is about a month delayed due to what my gardening partner calls a “mini ice age”. This has been one of the snowiest and wettest and cloudiest springs I’ve ever experienced in the intermountain west. And the sun doesn’t feel as warm as usual. But we plant anyway keep our fingers crossed that it will all work out!

How are your gardens doing? Share in the comments below!