Friday, March 19, 2010

Garden Update

We made it home a little earlier last night so I was able to stop in the garden and plant some seeds. It had rained REALLY hard over the weekend and the soil looked somewhat compacted when I arrived. It was hard to say where I had planted the first row of lettuce. My markers were all over the place and nothing was popping up yet. I gingerly added a few more rows of lettuce all the way to the left, careful to leave space for garlic (I hope it pops up). Thus far, I've sown green leaf, "gourmet blend", and a frillier green leaf that was leftover from last year.


Between the largest cabbage and the lettuce, I added one row of spinach stretching front to back. Peas from March 9th are planted under the left half of the trellis and I finished the right half yesterday. Many rows of beets are between the trellis and cabbages. I plan on harvesting their greens throughout the season as last year we nearly picked them clean without harming the beets. In the top right corner I planted three rows of radish and in the bottom right I planted 2 types of carrots.

The whole arrangement is slightly different from what I had originally planned. I reworked the plan after getting there last night and laying in some rows of seeds.

I figure the lettuce will be replaced by bush beans, the peas will be replaced by cucumbers on one half and squash on the other, the beets will be doing their thing through fall, ditto with the carrots, the radish will be replaced by tomato plants, the spinach will be a surprise (first year growing it), and the cabbages will fill out the rest for most of the season. In the picture above, the small cabbage-like thing farthest to the top right is cauliflower. Who knows what will come of that guy.

Oh, there is also the plan to have an eggplant seedling go in somewhere when we get the tomatoes. I am hoping to find either a Thai skinny or round variety. I don't think we'll be able to produce any of the big Italian varieties by the end of summer. I have seen other people successfully grow smaller types in neighboring plots.

Here are the traditional cabbages (two) and the brighter green Chinese cabbages (three). I expect to be harvesting the Chinese first, hopefully by summer.


Now we just have to wait and hope for a pleasant spring with sun all day and light rain at night.

By the way, there were lots of yearling kittens in the garden when I was doing my thing. A really wild looking long haired dark brown/black one with big green eyes was watching my every move.



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