Tenley Nelson - Featured Columnist

There is so much to love about May, even in a year with a delayed spring. The snow has finally receded with just one tiny ice strip left in our yard behind the shed. Migrating birds have filled the skies, trees, ponds, and meadows. Swallows have been fighting over the bird houses and flickers moved into the aspen tree behind the perennial garden. Rusty blackbirds, with their unique and beautiful song, showed up a day or two ago. The newly emerging aspen leaves have given a greenish hue to the hills. The grasses, dandelions, and fireweed have emerged in the garden seemingly overnight, growing even when hard frosting at night.

The hardier starts in the greenhouse just spent their first night outside (the 22nd) after gradually hardening off all week in the wind and sun. It has been a crowded space for weeks and I am happy to finally be moving some items out. With thecold temperatures the first two weeks of May, it was starting to feel like warmer nights were never going to happen.

Water has been an ongoing struggle this spring. The spring water we haul for our household was so cold (even when left overnight in the greenhouse before using) that it shocked my cucumber plants, killing half of my previously beautiful starts. After that learning lesson, I started hauling buckets of hot water out to the barrels to mix with the cold water. The lake ice went out May 15 and I pumped up some of the lake water with the gas water pump and garden hoses to fill some buckets and barrels. These got the greenhouse plants through until Tim had a few spare moments to help rework the irrigation.

That opportunity presented itself yesterday when a client delayed his arrival by a day. Last year the little pressure tank failed, we pulled our rotting dock out, and I decided to upgrade all my water line to 1” instead of having the middle section neck down to 3⁄4”, constricting the flow. The old setup would not work with the new pressure tank (and without a dock), so we had to figure out how to put a line in that would not suck mud off the bottom of the lake. It was an afternoon of pipe wrenches, fittings, pinch clamps, and bitten back swear words.

One of my failings is that I always turn the pipe the wrong way regardless of how long I spend puzzling out how to set up the wrenches. Working with irrigation makes me irrationally angry, though I suppose in the end it is worth it when the water comes out where it is supposed to. But this is one chore I would happily never be part of again. The worst bit is when I realized all this was “temporary” as we will rework the system after building a new dock. This week I have more line to connect to get water the 400+ feet to the main garden before I can start planting, but it should be straightforward poly splicing. Fingers crossed that there is not any winter damage at the main garden to repair!

If you are feeling behind, take heart: I am probably more behind than you! This is a common theme for me in May when the planning of January does not line up with the reality of May. I have been cleaning the hunting cabin and preparing meals for bear clients, overseeing the end of the year of homeschool, taking the kids to Valdez for a field trip, plus all the normal house and homestead work and pretty much anything and everything except working in the garden. In early May I was not panicked because there was too much snow and then it was too wet. But the last week has been hot and dry and the weeds are fully taking advantage of the fact that I am not present, so now, I feel, is a pretty good time to panic. How will it all get done?

It was timely for a 2013 Facebook memory to pop up today and remind me that all is not lost. It was an even colder spring in 2013 than this year. The lake did not go out until May 26th, and I was very stressed that I had an entire month worth of work to accomplish in a week. I must remember that I can only do what I can, what I get done will have to be good enough, and it is better to focus on what I have done than what is left to do.

So, with that thought, in May, I mixed all the potting soil for 46 large greenhouse pots and planted them with tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. I pulled the garlic bed mulch off on the 11th and, while there was a ton of vole activity under all that straw, the garlic survived and is slowly growing. I finished the raspberry pruning and trellising on the 20th. While I pruned the spent canes out last fall, I still had to selectively prune the hedge to 4 or 5 canes per linear foot and tie the canes to the wire.

The honeyberries are flowering, the white currants have buds, and the black currants are leafing out; the trays of starts in the greenhouse and hardening off on screen tables outside are ready to go as soon as the beds are prepped. All is not lost. The garden will get planted (eventually).

From my garden to yours, Happy Planting!

More from Tenley Nelson:

April in the Garden

Off-Grid Seed Starting

June In the Garden