About crowded windowsills, Ice Saints, hardening off step by step and why this is a good time to sow beans.
It is almost time to harden off your summer vegetables started indoors (photo taken in mid-May last year)
Mother's Day
Today is Mother's Day, so congratulations to all mothers!
Hopefully, the sun will make a few good appearances and make the day feel even more festive.
The weather will become a little cooler again in the coming week, perhaps thanks to the Ice Saints, but it should gradually warm up after that:
Source: Weer & Radar
The weather is already suitable for sowing more of your raised beds, but it will not be warm enough to start getting your summer vegetables used to outdoor conditions until the end of the week.
Ice Saints and hardening off
Tomorrow is the first day of the Ice Saints, traditionally observed from 11 to 15 May. The final day is the feast day of Cold Sophia.
Hardly anyone in the Netherlands knows her, but in many other countries she is counted among the Ice Saints.
Saint Sophia of Rome, by Wil de Groot
After 15 May, the risk of night frost has almost disappeared. Summer vegetables cannot cope with cold weather, so they should only go outside after that date.
It is about time too, as many Makkelijke Moestuin gardeners are running out of room on their windowsills: tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, courgettes and now beans as well.
Some of my plants started indoors on the windowsill
Even then, you cannot simply move them straight into your outdoor raised beds. First, get them used to outdoor conditions step by step.
Read how, why and when to do this, and what the Ice Saints have to do with it, here:
Beans belong in a vegetable garden. Nothing tastes better than fresh beans from your own garden.
You can sow beans from early May until the end of June, but the weather needs to be warm and dry. In cold, rainy conditions, beans do not germinate well, and that kind of weather is never far away in the Netherlands.
Young seedlings are also very vulnerable to night frost and slugs, and birds may pull them straight back out.
That is why we prefer to start them indoors and move them outside only after they emerge.
Romano pole beans, butter beans and bush beans
Until now, we always started them in traditional seed-starting mix, but this year we are using the coconut version for the first time. It is working surprisingly well.
press 10 to 12 beans into it, about 2 to 3 cm deep
place the pot in a bowl
put it in a warm place
Starting Romano pole beans in coconut seed-starting mix
The first seedlings emerged 4 to 7 days later. The butter beans were fastest and have all appeared already, followed by the Romano pole beans. We can now see the first bacon bean and bush bean seedlings too.
As soon as the first seedlings appeared, we moved the pots into plenty of light:
The butter beans and Romano pole beans are emerging from the mix
The rest will probably appear over the next few days. As the weather is expected to stay fine and dry for the coming weeks, move them straight to your raised bed afterwards.
The app explains exactly how to do this. You will also find a detailed guide to beans in the Knowledge Base, including the differences between bush, pole and drying beans, as well as my favourite varieties.
The longer days make everything grow more quickly. So quickly, in fact, that some squares are already becoming quite full.
Harvest regularly now to prevent those plants from shading neighbouring squares or beginning to flower and losing flavour.
Time to harvest plenty of rocket, spinach and radishes
We are already harvesting almost every day from the garden in Den Andel, even though many of these plants were not sown until early April.
We need to, because several of the plants briefly started indoors in one square are now ready to move into squares of their own:
Plants briefly started indoors together, ready to move into their own squares
That is all for today
Good luck with the plants on your windowsill and, of course, with sowing your beans.
Enjoy the moments when the sun appears and the increasingly frequent harvests ahead.
But remember: when there is plenty of sun and no rain, your plants need enough water.
Keep the MM-mix damp and pay particular attention to newly emerged seedlings. They always need a little extra water during their first few days, and in sunny weather they may need it twice a day, even when you use water reservoirs.
Is there still water in the reservoirs?
Speaking of those reservoirs: in dry weather, check at least once a week that they still contain enough water. Because they reduce how often you need to water, it is easy to forget. I certainly do.
