I Got To Pick a Handful

Bob Bauer

April 16, 2017 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 1 minutes

April 15, 2017

April is time to fertilize your artichokes, berries and lawn. Artichokes are called heavy feeders and mine get fish emulsion every three weeks. A granulated time release all natural fertilizer would be easier, but I always have fish emulsion on hand so that's what they get. The lawn has lots of clover growing in it, and the clippings are left on it to decompose, so it never needs fertilizer..

The few spots that dry out quickly benefit from a little ammonia sulfate. Our berry patch is small enough to fish emulsion, but if I had time release granuals, I'd use them..

April 16, 2017

I got to pick a handful of radishes today. The cats had run so many laps through the wire hoops covering them that they had banked the soil up over them. Usually you can see when your radishes are ready to pick because they pop up, but I didn't know until I started weeding them. I also got the second planting of beets in. I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since the first planting..

They are still pretty small so I guess they would have preferred a warmer climate. The cole crops are loving this weather. I will definitely start them next year as early as I did this year. I planted indoors mid January and transplanted out mid February, with successive plantings every month..

April 17, 2017

It's time to start saving your egg shells. Tomato planting time is just around the corner. A dozen crumbled shells per plant, sprinkled around the roots will help prevent blossom end rot. A thick two inch layer of straw, spread two feet around the plant will help too. I lost half the tomatoes on one plant last year because I failed to mulch adequately. It's also time to direct seed broccoli and cauliflower..

I got a ten foot row of cauliflower in today. When the plants are about 3" tall, and get their second set of leaves, I thin the row to one plant every 4" by cutting them off at the ground. Then I super soak the row and dig three in a row up, leaving one every 16". I plant them in new 10' rows 16" apart, and get three new rows. That's a lot of cauliflower, but it never goes to waste..

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