Garden activity is really starting to ramp up. Pea seeds (Green Arrow) were planted out into the garden around the third week of March and have since germinated. These were the saved pea seeds from last year’s crop and almost every pea seed germinated, which is great. Lettuce seedlings were transplanted out into the garden under the plastic covered hoop on April 9th. The following number of seedlings were transplanted out into the garden on April 18th: 17 broccoli, 6 cabbage, and 6 kohlrabi. Brussels sprout seedlings will be transplanted out in about another week. Seed potatoes (Red Norland and Superior) were planted out into the two raised beds and various grow bags in the first week of April. Some of these have started to emerge from the soil.
Harvest of the first of the green onions (the top setting onions that were planted last fall) started on April 8th, with more to come. Harvest of the overwintered lettuce (Sierra) started on April 9th. Harvest of the early March seeded radishes (started under a plastic covered hoop next to the overwintered lettuce) began on April 17th with more to come.
All of the pepper and tomatoes seedlings were transplanted into larger pots about one week ago. They are still in the cold frame and will remain there until they are ready to be planted out into the garden, probably by the 2nd week of May.
The weather and the garden has finally started to warm up and dry out since the garden received over 3 inches of rain in a short 24-hour period about two weeks ago. Before then it had been very dry.
The total solar eclipse that took place here in Indianapolis on April 8th was awesome. The one thing that surprised me the most was how dark it was during the approximately 4 minutes of the total eclipse. I have experienced at least 2 partial solar eclipse in the past and those were pretty interesting, but nothing like this. The time leading up to totality was interesting as well. The best way to describe it was that it looked like the sun was filtered, and you could feel the lack of warmth of the sun on your skin during the hour or so leading up to totality. The speed that it went from light to total darkness also surprised me, it was in a matter of a few seconds. Being a weather geek, I was also surprised by the drop in temperature. I heard that temperatures dropped around 10 degrees during totality, which I would believe. I was also interested to see how my chickens would react to the eclipse. They had been free ranging in the back yard for a few hours before totality. During the time leading up to totality they seem unaffected, but when totality started (total darkness) they started to make their way to the coop, but did not actually go in. I do have a light in the coop, which stays on most of the day, which probably confused them a little as well (see picture below). After totality, when it started to get light again, they went about their business like nothing happened. This was truly a once in a lifetime event that I will probably not experience again.
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