Already it is April, and the year is ¼ over. It seems though the gardening has just begun. Still to come are the tomatoes, pepper, beans, squash, eggplant, okra, cucumbers, and maybe even some corn and melons. Sure, you will be able to get all these things at the grocery store or even have them delivered to your door if you wish. However, there is nothing finer than to walk out to the garden and get your breakfast, lunch, or dinner fresh off the plants that you are going to plant in April.
If you are a serious tomato grower, you probably planted your tomatoes a few weeks ago. Those that were planted then are already flowering and are ten times bigger than when planted. So, you might still find some good transplants that will produce before it gets too hot in mid-summer, but you need to act fast. And you will need to pour on the fertilizer (hopefully organic) and water almost daily, so they mature quickly. But you can do that if you have the desire.
All the other veggies mentioned in the first paragraph can be planted in April. My advice is ‘sooner the better’! Most days it is still relatively cool. In addition, every day you procrastinate is one day longer you will have to wait for harvest. Enough said! For good eating this coming summer, jump into action now!
A word about citrus. At first glance it appeared that I had lost all seven of my citrus trees. Most were ten to
fifteen years old. At Oak Forest the orchard also took a bad hit. Last fall and winter was our best year ever at the school with close to 1000 pounds of citrus picked. At home we made juice and gave buckets full away to friends, neighbors, and relatives. It is sad to know there will be no citrus this fall and winter. In the past week or two several of the trees have shown a bit of green growth on the trunks or major branches. So far, no new leaves. In some cases, the wood still seems green. All the advice from the experts says don’t be too aggressive in pruning or cutting the tree down. The first quarter of this year has been fairly dry. Some experts recommend that they be given lots of water since we have not had enough natural amount of rain for this time of the year. One expert recommends fertilizing another says not yet. So, time will tell. My prediction is that citrus trees will be expensive and in short supply at the garden centers this year. I have not seen a Meyer Lemon with any green yet. How about you?
And a big thank you to all who supported the OFE Growers fundraiser for the gardens. We sold over 9200 pounds of MicroLife. We are still waiting on some back orders of a few products but hopefully will have those in April. We will let you know when they come in. Mike Serant has apologized for the delay. He says they had planned for a 15% increase in business in 2021 but demand has been well beyond that and logistics for blending and getting additional product has been challenging for many reasons. Another thank you goes to all the volunteers that helped unload the product at our garage, called to notify you that the product was there, and helped to load the product into your vehicles. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. It was also great to see many of you whom we haven’t seen for such a long time.
I hope you have stayed healthy and like Gudrun and me are now in the two-shot club. That has nothing to do with March Madness, by he way, even though it happened in March.
See you in the garden!