After what seems like the coldest April in history I was able to get my spring seedlings in the ground (on or about 4/15) and they have finally stabilized and perked up a bit. Hope to be harvesting some spinach, lettuce and radish in early May for my first ever Spring Crop! They may not look like much in this picture but the kale and spinach are doing well. I have a square foot of arugula I should be able to harvest soon. My mesclun mix is at about four inches so I hope to take my first cutting from that in another week. My Brussels sprouts and cauliflower are looking happy, and the peas I sowed a week ago are popping out of the ground. Radish, carrot, and beets have also sprouted from the ground. Finally, some potatoes I placed in my 20 gallon grow tubs popped up! I'm super excited to try and pull out some new potatoes in about 60 days for a nice meal. My broccoli seedlings, apparently less cold tolerant, succumbed to a cold spring night.....I've placed some bibb lettuce in their place, and will try them again in the fall.
I built chicken wire cages to go around all these leafy crops to keep the rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks away! Just the other day, I saw a squirrel dig out an onion bulb I planted as a border crop in a summer bed, chew on it and spit it out! It could at least have put it back where it found it. Hopefully it learned its lesson and leaves the rest alone.
Feeling very proud that my spring crops seem to be doing well and with the forecast showing weather warming over the coming ten days, I decided to sow some summer crops before my traditional starting date of Mother's Day. If on Mother's Day they haven't popped up I'll sow them again. I sowed my squashes, watermelon, pole beans, bush beans, cilantro, basil, dill, chives. This coming weekend I hope to sow some cucumbers and zucchini. I got some okra started inside with the intent of transplanting it where my beets currently are in June after harvesting the beets. I'll be starting to bring my tomato, pepper and eggplant outside to harden them off this weekend as well. My peppers will include shishito, jalapeno, pinot noir and CA Wonder. My tomatoes will include Arkansas Traveler, Brandywine Pink, Early Girl, Cherry, Baby Boomer, Sungold, San Marzano. With this variety I hope to have tomatoes from early July through first frost. The seedlings
The tomato seedlings are 12" tall and ready to go! The peppers, always slower to germinate are a respectable 4-6", but more importantly they look healthy.
Hopefully in a few more weeks the spring garden will be grown up and I'll be starting my cut and come again for the kale. I'll be placing some new spinach seeds in the ground this weekend, as I expect that I'll harvest the whole crop of spinach at once. A lot does not go a long way! This year is all about learning how much of what I should be growing! I should probably have tripled my spinach, and probably could have lived with four kale plants instead of 9, but they were so pretty! Also, who needs three brussels sprouts plants....probably not me...lol. We shall see what happens.
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