In the Spring time it is always so exciting to get out on the land and plant something! We itch for the soil to dry up fast, and for the frogs to sing their trilling serenades into the cozy night. 🐸 The irony is, what we really need is a warm rain. A good, 20+ degree C steady shower to soak the ground with fresh life. Have you ever used a kettle to heat the water so that you don't have to wait for your cold potting soil (accidentally left in the barn) to cooperate so you can get on with your potting day? (Soil should be warm for good germination.)
It is not a good recommendation to get the water boiling mind! Just warm. Amazingly, water holds a lot of energy. It takes a whole calorie to raise 1 tiny gram of water just 1 degree Celsius. Warm water is a super effective way of waking up soil biology in early spring... and this is probably the third year in a row that Mother Nature coordinated the cold days with the rainfall to completely skip this delightful spring ritual. (I miss barefoot puddle jumping in May! Am I too young at heart?)
When soil biology doesn't warm up effectively, nitrogen gets a bit scarce. I remember one year the garlic leaves turned kinda yellow after a cold spell in May. This year they look a little behind...but actually not too shabby:
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| Left foreground: 2 rows of peas. Left background 2 rows of Spring planted Creoles and Silver Skins and bulbils. Right side 12 rows of fall planted MPS, Porcelains, and assorted varieties. |
Also, I wasn't kidding about the frogs singing. That's local Ontario weather lore: the frogs have to sing three times before you can rule out that a final spring frost. (Meaning they start three times and stop, even if this sounds like them singing for several nights, and then a pause for a one night cold spell).