Signs Of A Midwest Spring

I’m finally seeing signs of  Midwest Spring in my garden!  While there will be many more signs to come, this is what’s happening so far.

Signs of a Midwest Spring in the edible garden:

Garlic

The garlic I planted last fall is about 6 to 8 inches high already.  Garlic is best planted in the fall if you want nice sized bulbs.  However, the first year I tried to plant this in the fall, I wasn’t able to find garlic at any of the local nurseries.  So what I discovered was that you can plant it in the spring but your bulbs will be small.  The trick is that in the fall you take the biggest and best bulbs from your summer harvest, divide them into individual cloves and plant them in the fall.  The following year the cloves will be a little bigger.  Do this every year and eventually, you will have nice big bulbs when you harvest your garlic. Do not use grocery store garlic bulbs for this.  I haven’t had to buy a garlic bulb in at least 5 years since I started growing this myself.  And I’ve had plenty to give away.

Raspberries

I planted raspberries in my garden a few years ago.  They multiply like weeds.  Which is great if you’re interested in giving plants away.  But you really can’t let them run amuck or you’ll end up with a briar patch so thick your handsome Prince will never be found.  I will be pruning these in the next week or so to cut out the old canes and allow new canes to grow strong and healthy.  Raspberries in my neck of the woods are pretty expensive at the grocery store so I’m thrilled to have my own to eat fresh, make jam, and freeze for baking.

Strawberries

My strawberries are starting to peek out from under the leaves.  Most winters I cover them with straw for protection.  But, while I had the straw ready to spread over them last fall, I was waiting for a hard freeze before I did it.  The hard freeze didn’t come till very late in the winter season.  That is unusual for our part of the Midwest.  So by the time the hard freeze came, I decided not to do it and see what happened.  Well, it looks like they survived.  This is another fruit I’m happy to have in my garden for the same reasons I have the raspberries.  Both are also great to have in the freezer to add in smoothies year round.

Chives

The chives are alive and well.  The thing about chives is that right now is a great time to harvest them to dry or freeze, and they will grow right back.  They are best harvested before they flower.  They look pretty with their little pink flowers, and are usable, but they are at their peak before that happens.

Rhubarb

I have a couple of patches of rhubarb.  When I was a kid, my friends and I would go out to the rhubarb patch and see who could eat the most rhubarb straight from the patch.  This is some seriously sour stuff.  But, it’s amazingly delicious in baked goods, sauces, and jams.  And it can be frozen for future use as well.  Yes it does require the use of sugar to sweeten it up a bit.  But if you’re making dessert I doubt you’re thinking too much about the sugar content.

As with most perennial fruits, you generally can’t get a harvest till about the 3rd season but you’ll never get one if you don’t get them planted.  I’ll admit that sometimes it’s hard to be patient, but such is the life of a gardener.

These are the perennials that have begun to peak out of the ground so far, but in a Midwest Spring, there will be more in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned.

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