April 2026
We’ve build up soil considerably in the low spots of our growing spaces since purchasing this property 12 years ago, but flooding has still been a problem some years—especially in spring. This has been one of those springs. The 18 inches of snow we had in March melted quickly with rains, rains, hail, and then more rain through the first weeks of April. It has been discouraging and frustrating to see standing water for so long, which kills some soil organisms and compacts the structure. It also has delayed outdoor planting and had us imagining that previously planted seed was rotting.
This week the sun came up and dried up the standing water. There are scattered signs of fava bean seedlings from seed that sat under water for a long time. We might at least get the seed back, which is important for the rare varieties. Although the cover crop is stunted from too much water, there is still reasonably good coverage where we planted peas and oats. On higher ground up near the house, native spring ephemerals (Trout Lilly and Bloodroot) show their bright faces amongst bold hyacinths and species tulips.
Harvesting
With only one or two jars of frozen greens left from last year, we’ve been delighted to start feasting on perennial cooking greens (Good King Henry and Turkish Rocket) straight from the garden. Since I’ve given up on the remainder of the storage onions from last year that have gone soft and are starting to grow, I can harvest perennial Welsh Onion and Walking Onion from the garden as needed. Asparagus is the best spring treat, though! I’m not thrilled with the amount that is coming up since enlarging the bed and planting more last year, but maybe they are still coming. Perennial herbs including chives, sorrel, chervil, lovage and parsley have all been fresh flavor enhancers in the kitchen. This weekend, I’ll pick some rhubarb for a pie.
Indoor Seed Starting
Although most brassicas could be directly sowed outdoors, slugs typically devour the newly emerged seedlings very quickly. So, we prefer to start cabbage, kale, and broccoli indoors late in March. The broccoli is a part of a landrace community seed saving project we are doing Oshkosh Seed Savers.
As usual, we started our eggplants, peppers in late March, followed by tomatoes, tomatillos, and ground cherries in early April.
Outdoor Planting
We planted some mustard greens and more lettuce in a raised bed, but the main planting areas have been too wet.
Outdoor Tending
One spring-time ritual involves excavating the fig trees that have been deeply mulched. Not even “Chicago Hardy” figs are reliable here, three hours north of Chicago; so, we must take some extraordinary measures to keep them alive through winter. They are planted on a south-facing wall of the garage, which is protected and comparatively warm. In the fall, we fold down the trunks and weigh down the branches with bricks so they can be mulched completely with burlap covered with a couple feet of dry leaves. We keep other varieties in pots all year, which overwinter in the basement and/or garage. They are all out now, basking in the sun.
We’ve been hardening off the allium, brassica, celery seedlings, which means putting them out in the sun and wind for a few hours at a time, gradually extending the time spent outdoors. We continue bring them indoors overnight, mostly to protect them from animals.
We’ve also been shifting around our 10-feet-tall bean trellises that have occupied the same planting bed for a few years. It’s time for nitrogen fixation to happen elsewhere, and we are separating them to allow for distance isolation required for seed saving.
Sea kale is new to us, and we got one plant to overwinter. We ate some green leaves raw, which were surprisingly sweet and crisp —a lot like an early cabbage. We’ve covered it with a pot for blanching, and are anxious to see how different the blanched leaves are.
Up Next
As soon as the planting areas aren’t mud, we can transplant out the alliums, brassicas. and celery. We’ll also plant out the remainder of our now-growing storage onion crop from last year; this season those bulbs will flower and produce seed for future use. The next round of indoor seed starting will be more herbs, annual flowers, and okra after that.