April Madness

Late April is a tricky time in the garden. The slow rains are done, but downpours alternate with bright sunny moments, forcing all of us into carpe diem mode. This weekend was no exception. On Friday afternoon, I was clearly behindhand because of wet soil, meetings, and bad timing. We spent Saturday catching up on house cleaning and watching the rains rush through, followed by enough sun to dry the roads before the next downpour began. I made a list of everything that needed to be done and assigned it to days in the coming week, working around budget commission meetings. Sunday afternoon’s task was emptying the compost barrels.

After lunch, I pulled on boots and garden pants and headed out back. I stopped into the greenhouse to admire the open shelf where 72 tomato starts had been until Friday afternoon, when they ALL went away (a new record) and realized that a few starts needed water.  I meandered back to the house with the watering can and tended to the plants before beginning the listed project. After gathering the big wheelbarrow and deep shovel, I headed for the chicken run. There were to garbage barrels full of sifted compost from last fall that needed to be empty before Mark could tidy and begin sifting the winter’s work.  Twenty minutes, tops, I thought. And it did go quickly, which was good, because it was starting to rain again. The herb bed in the back took some of the compost, then I added some to the asparagus, and the bed on the south side of the house.

That’s when things began to turn from “small project” to “all afternoon.” Maybe, I thought, I should toss over that bed while I am here and pull out some of the weeds that are growing there. That will only take a few minutes. I got out the pitchfork and tossed the bed.  After that,  I headed back. The rain was still holding off…maybe I should plant out those cabbages under the hoop? That would be quick, too. When I went in to get the cabbages, I noticed that the collards and chard, planted at the same time, really wanted to be freed from their containers as well.  Should I bump them up? Seems like a waste of effort if they could just be planted. But the bed needed to be tossed and de-lumped. I looked at the sky. The shower was passing.

Ten minutes later, I was deep in bed prep, plastic cover tucked to the side of the bed, hoops off, chickens commenting on the process.  The sun was warm. The plants were really ready to be planted out. Even the signs were painted. I tucked them into their summer home and headed back to the greenhouse with a few starts that would not fit.  They needed to be bumped up. Other starts needed to be tended inside as well.  And the shelf needed to be brushed off. And maybe the doorstep should be swept? Oh, and there was that rake head, painted blue, that Julia dropped off when she picked up tomatoes on Friday afternoon. That needed to be worked into the front garden fence.

  I was outside for two hours completing a “twenty minute” activity and I still hadn’t picked up all of my tools. The sun was out. The air was warm. It was time.