Stay At Home Gardening

Our lives have changed drastically due to the Coronavirus. However there is more interest than ever in home gardening, especially growing your own vegetables. Yard-to-table is trendy. And you can get the kids involved. Thankfully landscaping and garden centers are considered “essential” businesses, with most of them offering curb side and delivery services.

So what should you be doing in your garden this month? Following are a few ideas:

Vegetables

  • Harvesting your cool season veggies to make room for your summer veggies

  • Canning whatever is abundant or sharing with your neighbors

  • Start planting your tomatoes (wait another month for the larger, beefsteak tomatoes), put in your cherry, plum and mid size tomatoes. Most likely there won’t be Tomatomania this season so visit your local nurseries for your basic tomato and ask for special tomatoes to be ordered

  • Peppers can go in now as well. Bell peppers and other non spicy peppers. The super hots (habanero, Carolina Reapers, etc.) do better in warmer weather

  • Squeeze in the last few lettuce crops, along with planting other super greens like Swiss chard. You can probably get away with some curly kale and oak leaf lettuces in semi shade

ANNUALS/PERENNIALS

  • Your cool season flowers should look amazing now. Start thinking about your warm season garden. As your pansies, snaps and violas start to poop out, look for petunias cosmos and marigolds for sun. Impatiens, coleus, New Guinea impatiens and begonias for shade and partial (morning) sun

BULBS/RHIZOMES

Now is a good time to consider your summer bulbs and rhizomes. Online bulb providers have some great options if your local nursery does not

Start your search for Dahlias, Hosta and Daylilies. They deliver direct to you! One of our favorites is Easy To Grow Bulbs located in Carlsbad, www.easytogrowbulbs.com

LIFESTYLE

If we have to be at home for our safety and the safety of others, why not surround yourselves with nature and fill your bellies with your home grown vegetables.

Coming soon….cocktail of the month, using seasonal ingredients from your garden. And what fertilizers to use on veggies and flowers.

Stay safe!!!!