I鈥檓 looking in my mind back to April, last year. I remember strolling along the water鈥檚 edge with a friend and a dog called Angel, all of us splashing in the shallow, warm ocean water, delighting in the summer-like weather and the sparkles of sunlight dancing through the water to the sand below.
Much of the garden was planted. Growth was progressing at a more than satisfactory pace. I鈥檇 already begun harvesting the first lettuces in the open garden.
What a difference this year: rain, rain and more rain, combined with chilly temperatures. Gardeners throughout the Island have been feeling stalled, and disheartened, spoiled as we had been with two previous winters that were mild, with many superbly useable gardening days, and spring seasons that were early and warm. It鈥檚 been hard not to feel horribly cheated.
A key question in many of our minds these past two months: To plant, or not to plant. Trouble is, there鈥檚 no simple answer. Conditions vary widely on this Island with its complex topography and different types of soil. Even in one general district, the elevation from sea level, distance from the ocean, and a garden鈥檚 soil texture can differ enough to create a wide range of conditions.
I didn鈥檛 seed my two long double rows of peas until April 8. By that time, the peas in my friend Sallie鈥檚 garden, seeded earlier, were already a few centimetres high. Her garden is at sea level, just a few blocks from the ocean. I鈥檓 up a steep hill and farther away from the water.
My soil is sandy, fast-draining and light in texture. Even so, as I incorporated compost into emptied plots I听found the soil to be far heavier with the rains than it usually is in early spring. I held off transplanting past mid-month because I recalled that the only times I鈥檝e ever lost the odd transplant was when spring soil conditions were on the wet side.
It鈥檚 the combination of cold and wet that makes life difficult for seeds and transplants. In these conditions seeds take longer to germinate and the delay leaves them susceptible to rotting and insect predation. Freshly made transplant roots tend to rot off.
My little greenhouse became crowded with transplants-in-waiting. Luckily, they had enough depth of soil in their flats to hold them in good condition, though some of the lettuces looked about ready to clamber out of their confines. The Kelsae onions had thickened up nicely following a light trimming. Little rosettes of endive were neat and perky. Stalwart snapdragon seedlings stayed robust.
This spring has been a learning experience. It has highlighted the usefulness of knowing your garden well: its degree of protection, its earliness (or听not), the texture and quality of the soil. Helpful too is an exchange of information with gardening neighbours. Find out what is working for them. Experiment. If conditions for planting seem borderline, make some indoor seedings and try out a few limited outdoor seedings and transplantings.
Make compost. Give plants the best chance possible with a well and naturally nurtured soil.
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More pansies. A bright and cheering feature of the dreary early spring has been the pansies and violas blooming madly on the patio, in full view through the glass patio doors from the family room.
Early in the month, new pansies, seeded indoors in early February, came into bloom to join the over-wintered plantings. A star of the new pansy show is Fizzle Sizzle 鈥楲emonade鈥� (Stokes Seeds). Its delicately cream-blushed flowers, finely etched with violet blue and purple lines, are simply charming.