April 19th Garden Update (Tomatoes & melons sprouting)

The last several nights have been bitter cold. One night dropped to 27 degrees and the past  two night have been in the upper 30s. I have had to cover my fruit trees with blankets, covered my strawberry plants with plastic, and mulched my blueberry bushes with leaves. My older peach tree was too big to cover, much like my 3 year old Pear trees.

Covered trees with blankets for threat of Frost

Recently my Cantaloupe and Watermelon plants have sprouted healthy, thick stalks. I have been watering them everyday with rain water I collected. My grandmother is also watering my cantaloupe, tomatoes, and peppers that I have in starter containers (at her house). My rain barrels stay at my grandparent's house for my grandmother to water some of her flowers and my starters.

Tomatoes sprouting in trays (filled with compost)

Cantaloupe sprouting tall (1 week old)

Melon, tomato, and pepper starters/
My grandma waters with spray bottle

Last night James and I planted another two rows of Kennebec potatoes. Today we finished the last row of potatoes, leaving us a total of 10 rows (125 lbs of potatoes). Hopefully by harvest time, the pound will triple or quadruple.

Finally after a week and a half our lettuce, kale, spinach and peas are poking out of the ground. The greens have been planted at my Grandparent's (which gets much more shade and colder temperatures than at my Mother's); so it is no wonder it took the greens longer to sprout.
In two weeks the young leaves of the greens will be ready to snack on, but it will take another four weeks for them to harvest.

I will make another post in several days on the progress!