Crunch Time - Part 1

In my work career, I often had occasion to say, “Every job has crunch time and this is ours.” Well, for a gardener in the Northeast, mid-May to mid-June is crunch time. During this period, it finally warms up enough to get the more sensitive plants into the ground. The last few weeks have definitely been crunch time for me, which is why there have been no new posts. I have spent most of the daylight hours for the last three weeks getting both seeds and transplants into the garden’s soil. Today is the first rainy day in weeks, so I will try to catch up.

Potting up the seedlings

Crunch time for me has three distinct areas: seeding, hardening-off, and transplanting. While the activities are distinct, they are all happen simultaneously. There is a very small window in which these key gardening elements need to be carried out in order to insure success.  This is what makes the work so intense. For me, late spring has always been a juggling act at best, given the demands of work and the weather. I am so blessed that this year I have all the time I need; and, the weather has been extremely cooperative. Even so, I have struggled to get it all done. Fortunately, almost all of it is finished now.

New Jersey's cool,wet spring

While early spring was relatively wet and cool, late spring has been pretty close to ‘normal’ for our area. By mid-May, the weather settled down and temperatures began to rise. The soil was now warm enough to direct seed most vegetables. I sowed some bush beans, zucchini, cucumbers and sunflowers. I planted my favorite Italian beans earlier than I probably should have; but I decided to take a chance. The worst thing was that I would lose some seed. So, I was pleasantly surprised when they all seemed to germinate. Encouraged by my success, I planted another row a week later and a different variety a week after that. We should be eating fresh beans much earlier this year!  Zucchini was a little more hesitant, but eventually they popped up too. Cucumbers went into the ground right before two days of torrential rain. They are also in the wettest part of the garden, so I was not surprised that germination was spotty at best. The good news is that I had started some seeds indoors in pots, so I can use these now to fill in the gaps. Sunflowers at the top of the garden obliged readily and are already about 6” tall. I love the sight of them, especially in late afternoon when they catch the last rays of the setting sun. The practically glow!

Seedlings in the greenhouse

Hardening-off is probably the trickiest of the gardening tasks that need to be done at this time. If you don’t know, hardening-off is the process of gradually exposing seedlings that have been started indoors to the outside world. In my case, this means beginning to move all my eggplant, pepper, and tomato seedlings from their climate-controlled comfortable indoor environments, to the harsh reality of direct sunlight, wind and wide swings in temperature. The first to take the plunge were the eggplants and some of the chile peppers. These vegetables have the longest lead-time, so they get started first. They were also the ones who had spent some time in the school’s greenhouse. With them, I needed to be extremely carefully. If I proceeded too quickly, they might go into shock and that would delay production.

Plants hardening-off

Once again, I was fortunate. We had a series of warm but relatively cloudy days. These are ideal conditions for hardening-off, because it is the least stressful for the plants. I have several wheeled carts with shelving that I use for this purpose. The plants initially spend two or three hours outside the first day and then are wheeled back inside. The next day, they might stay for four or five hours (this really does depend on the weather) before heading back indoors. This process continues until they have been exposed to the elements for ten to twelve hours. Then, if the nights are warm enough, they stay outside all night, or, if not, they come inside. Gradually I added the remaining peppers and began with the tomatoes. By the week before Memorial Day, almost all the seedlings were spending most of the time outdoors. It was now time to begin transplanting!