April In The Garden (Sort of)

You smell that? Spring is in the air! My tulips and hyacinth are poking their heads above the soil, I moved my potted madder (that I’ve been babying now for three years by bringing it inside all winter) is outside, and my blackcurrants, saskatoon, and lilacs are all starting to leaf out.

Inside my starts are doing well. I was late on starting my ‘Chocolate’ Habanero, but I think I’ll get at least a few fruit this year. I’m planning on trying to overwinter a plant or two to get a jump start on next year (my god, here I am thinking about 2025 and my plants aren’t even in the garden yet).

Anyhoo, the seed bank wiki is pretty solid now, everything from last year has been updated and I’ve tidied this year’s list to be more or less complete. I finagled myself a plot at the local community garden, and while I’m not sure if I’ll use that spot for seed saving (due to cross contamination with the other plots), it does in the very least open up more space for my garden at home to dedicate to plants for seed. I had given up zucchini this year in order to grow ‘Futtsu’ squash, but with the community garden plot, and fresh seed from last year, ‘Fordhook’ is back on the docket!

I’ve made a few notes about some of the varieties I’m growing this year already. I received ‘Sweet Baby Jade’, a dwarf green cherry from a commercial source here in Alberta that unfortunately I can tell was already contaminated or crossed unintentionally; the variety is supposed to have potato leaves, and all my starts are regular leaf. I’ll continue growing this one, see what I get, but that is unfortunate.

My ‘Turks Muts’ from Dan & Val McMurray’s collection is a bit odd too. It’s also supposed to be a potato leaf, but about half my starts are regular leaf. I’ll isolate the potato leaf ones here in my home garden, and maybe grow a plant or two of the regular leaf in the community garden just to see what they are. I know some sellers sell ‘Turks Muts’ regular leaf as the variety, but it’s supposed to be a potato leaf.

The next few days I’m hoping to pot up all my tomato starts, as they’re starting to be quite squished now. My dye and ornamentals are coming along nicely as well, another bonus of the community plot is the additional dye plant room. I’m hoping to get something out of my indigo this year, whether it’s just seed or some fresh leaf dyeing (oh boy do I ever want to do fresh leaf indigo dyeing).

I’m still hoping to be a lot more on top of photos and blog posts this year. I’m hoping for two a month from now until frost. Let’s cross our fingers, eh?