Weekly News, 4.21.21

Hello gardening friends,

If you watched the Russ Recommends video last week, you saw that he warned of cold weather coming. Does he have some special superhuman skills to predict what we saw this morning? No, but some lessons learned the hard way and wise advice from his great-grandfather. We had many excited gardeners visiting us during the summer-like weather and wanting to buy their summer plants. Of course this is spring time in Pittsburgh, so you just don’t know what the weather will bring. Putting heat-loving, summer annuals and veggie plants in the ground before mid-May is a big risk. Container gardens and hanging baskets aren’t a huge deal, since you can move them safely inside for those nights that there is a risk of frost.

If you’re someone that has tender annuals or other plants to protect the next couple of nights, see Russ’ tips below.

Russ mentions the last full moon in May, which led me to look up more about May’s full moon, and I found some interesting facts from the Old Farmer’s Almanac:

• May’s full moon is called the Full Flower Moon, because flowers spring forth in abundance this month. It has also been known as the Corn Planting Moon.
• The best days in May to plant below ground crops are May 5 and 6, (beets, carrots, potatoes, onions, parsnips, garlic, radish, horseradish).
• The best days in May to plant above ground crops are May 15, 16, 24 and 25.
• This year’s Full Flower Moon in May will be on May 26, and will be the biggest and brightest Supermoon of 2021.

Here’s what’s going on around the farm this week–

• our hanging baskets continue to grow nicely in the production houses. Some will be ready next week, and the majority of them will be ready in 2-3 weeks.
• the flower pouches are ready and looking great.
• we have quite a few new and interesting annuals this year. Check out our brand new, weekly series called “Talk To Us Tuesdays” on facebook live on Tuesday, April 27, for a preview of new annuals that we’re growing.
• clematis are expected to arrive by the end of the week.
• if you are getting your garden beds ready and need a lot of soil and mulch, our bagged and bulk products are available online for curbside pickup or local delivery.
• we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to get more of our perennials, trees and shrubs up in the online store. Over the next week we’ll be adding a limited selection of our annuals too. Maybe you are short on time, or you don’t want to fight the crowds in the store, or you want us to deliver a gift to surprise a loved one… whatever your reason, we are committed to making your shopping experience easier with our online shopping for curbside pickup and local delivery.
• new events are being added to our calendar each week, including a rain barrel workshop, veggie gardening 101, and Mother’s Day Mimosa event. Learn more and register here, and keep checking back often for fun things to do and learn this season.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Melanie