In years past, back when we have had lots of cold winter weather, the traditional planting-out season always commenced over the Memorial Day weekend. As things warmed up, many of us shaved a weekend or two off of tradition. Whichever approach you take this year, you should be hardening off all of your plants right now. It takes a week to do the job the lazy way: Just leave them be in shade, protected from hard winds, the entire day. Your only effort is watering when needed. If you want to leave them outside longer, for a more traditional planting date, that is just fine.
How many years have I warned in these columns that anything and everything grown indoors needs this acclimation to the sun's UV rays and to dry conditions? Judging by the questions I know I will start getting in a few weeks about white leaves and stunted plants, not enough.
If you are going to take my advice, you need to go to nurseries now to get the plants you did not start yourself. By all means, bring a list of what you need. Things are mighty tempting in nurseries right now.
By the same token, you want to get your planting beds ready for the big weekend. This is when rototilling rears it head. Again, I repeat myself, but heavy disturbance of garden soil is no longer a recommended practice. It destroys the soil food web and only needs to be done once at the beginning of a garden's life, anyhow. If you must dig, just disturb the soil where you are planting things. There is no need to rip up the whole garden, no need to double dig and surely no need for a tiller.
Weeding is necessary, too. You can use a hoe or just get down on your hands and knees. I like to use a Winged Weeder, but there are lots of similar tools. Mostly, you will be dealing with quackgrass. Just get the most roots you can and remove them from the garden. Once you finish, mulch to keep weeds down until you plant.
The best times to feed microbes that feed plants are in the fall and now when you plant. Sprinkle a band of low trilogy numbered fertilizer an inch below where you plant seeds or starts. Add a bit of compost to the hole or row as well. (Open up rows by dragging a two-by-four or similar stick down the bed.) Make sure you have a good organic microbe food on hand, along with the appropriate type of mycorrhizal fungal propagules. These are things you need to get at the nurseries along with those plants.
If you have an indoor greenhouse, you probably have it going by now. If not, what are you waiting for? Get those tomato and pepper plants up and growing. Make sure you have a fan. Ideal temperatures are around 76 degrees. At 90 degrees, plants start to shut down. Adequate air circulation seems to help keep powdery and downy mildews at bay.
Lawns need watering, not fertilizing. Mowing will help keep those dandelions from flowering or going to seed. Dog spots need a heavy raking, a good flushing with water, a bunch of compost tossed on them and, finally, new seed previously rolled in endomycorrhizal fungi. You can buy repair kits, too.
Finally, one of the reasons we wait so long to plant despite the more-than-squirrel's-ear-sized leaves on those birches is so the soil can warm up. So why do we then pour 40-degree water on the plants we plant? This never made sense to me. At least at the start of the season, use warm water on your gardens. Ideally, you have a warm water tap outdoors. And consider a black water barrel to produce some warm water for your gardens this summer. It's here.
Jeff's Alaska Garden Calendar
Visit nurseries: Plants, potatoes, mycorrhizal fungi, stakes and anything else on the written list
Seeds to plant outdoors in the soil: Peas, nasturtiums, chard, onion sets
Sweep: If you do nothing else, just sweep up a bit. It will look like you did some yardening.
Help the Alaska Botanical Garden: As far as I know, the ABG is the only organic botanical garden in the United States. It has been nominated for a chance to win a $5,000 grant in a contest run by Safer Brand, a maker of organic gardening products. All it has to do is garner some votes. You can help by going to saferbrand.pgtb.me/R51cl3/kMPG3 and voting. You can help once a day until May 31.
Northwest Cannabis Classic: I'll be giving a talk titled "Relationship Between Soils and Fine Cannabis" at the the Northwest Cannabis Classic from 2:45-3:45 p.m. Saturday, May 14. For tickets or more information, visit nwcannabisclassic.com.