April 1 Sowed Legion of Honor marigold seeds in basement.
April 3 Rabbit ate my Katarina cabbages.
April 4 & 5 Low temperatures in the mid 20’s both nights. According to the long range forecast, the morning of the 6th could have been the last hard freeze of this spring.
April 8 Put the tomato plants outside to harden off. It was 65 F on this day of the eclipse. I did put the cold frame over the tomato plants to protect them from the wind and cooler night time temperature.
April 10 Peas, radishes and spinach have emerged. Dutchman’s Breeches and Spring Beauty are in full bloom. Other spring ephemerals will soon follow. Repotted the peppers today and will start hardening them off outdoors soon. A few farmers have started working their fields. If weather cooperates, corn planting is very soon.
April 11. Looked at rabbit fences at Menards and I planted Honeoye and Ozark beauty strawberries, so I’m going to need some bird netting too.
Honeoye strawberry was developed by the Cornell Research Station, Geneva, NY, and has been a top variety for commercial growers in New England and the Great Lakes states. It is very winter hardy and shows some resistance to powdery mildew. It is a consistent berry producer with excellent freezing quality.
The Ozark Beauty strawberry produces large, firm, bright red berries that are juicy and sweet with a high sugar content. The world's most popular everbearing variety are particularly well-suited for more northern climates and can survive winter temperatures to -30 degrees. Developed by J. B. Winn in Arkansas and released in 1955, this everbearing cultivar is a cross between ‘Red Rich’ and ‘Twentieth Century.’
April 12 I transplanted the marigolds into six packs, and I planted Salad Burnet and Baron Mache.
Salad Burnet, family Rosaceae, is also known as Drumsticks, Old man's pepper, Poor man's pepper, or Pimpernel. it is a soft leaved hardy evergreen perennial making it a wonderful addition to any herb bed. The fresh cut leaves add a nutty, cucumberish taste to salads or whatever else they are sprinkled on. Salad burnet can be also used in making a great butter or vinaigrette.
Mache, a honeysuckle family member, is commonly known as corn salad or field salad because long before mache was cultivated it was foraged for fresh greens growing as a weed in cultivated fields. Mâche is also known as lamb's lettuce because the leaves resemble the shape of a lamb's tongue. It also is known as Fetticus and I don’t have the foggiest reason why.
Baron mache boasts quick growth, rounded dark green leaves and an upright habit for clean, easy harvest. The leaves are nutty and tender, adding incredible texture and flavor to spring salads.
April 15 The Junco are now noticed by their absence. Headed to greener pastures and forests in Wisconsin and beyond. The warblers and other spring migratory birds have not yet appeared, but are expected anon. I probably should get the hummingbird feeder ready. The Virginia Blue Bells are in full bloom and the Columbine will be next.
Started cukes in the basement.
April 20 26 degrees produced a heavy frost this morning. We are nearing the average frost free date of May 4, but the rule here in northern IL is don’t plant until Mother’s Day.
April 23 Did a final repotting of tomato plants today with the idea of setting them outside to harden off after what I suspect to be this year’s last frost tonight. Wouldn’t dare put these in the ground yet as there’s a good chance I’m wrong about no more frost.
Maize, also known as corn, a member of the Grass family, is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Corn has multiple uses. Besides feeding people, it is a major livestock food, a source of oil for cooking and manufacturing, ethanol used as fuel, and corn mash - an ingredient for brewing white lightening. Corn is America’s top crop with more than 93 million acres of farmland devoted to it.
Glyphosate herbicides have been used expansively since 1974 on corn, soybeans, and cotton. Monsanto, now a Bayer subsidiary, leads the glyphosate market with sales of its Roundup herbicide and Roundup Ready seed. Roundup kills everything in its path, including corn, soybean, and cotton plants.
April 24 Planting True Gold sweet corn outdoors today. True Gold is the famously popular hybrid Golden Jubilee tediously de-hybridized and stabilized by Dr. Alan “Mushroom” Kapuler and originally marketed by Peace Seeds of Corvallis, OR.
Sunshine -75 days - old classic, short-season, sweet corn variety that was developed at the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station by Albert F. Yeager to thrive in areas with shorter growing seasons. 'Sunshine' is the stabilized cross between Golden Bantam and Gills Early Market. Originally released in 1927, this open-pollinated variety remained very popular until seed companies began favoring the sale of more profitable, unstable, F1 hybrids. Sunshine’s stalks grow to about five to six feet in height with ears setting about one foot from the ground. It retains the good, old-time corn flavor of its Golden Bantam parentage but reaches roasting ear stage three to ten days earlier. The ears are six to eight inches long averaging twelve rows of golden yellow kernels.
Sow corn outdoors after last frost
• Germination Temperature:60-85ºF.
• Seed Sowing Depth:1” deep in blocks, 4-5 rows, 24-36” apart
April 25 another hard frost this morning making 4 frosts this week. But the forecast is showing no lows in the 30 degree range for the next 10 days, so until proven wrong I’m claiming April 25th as the last killing frost for 2024.
April 27 setting all the potted tomatoes outside to harden off.
April 28 same for pepper plants.
April 29 ditto for the cukes. I’ve had enough going up and down the basement stairs hauling plants and killing my arthritic knees.
