My seedlings are ready to go into the ground, but we still have no water in the garden. It is promised for this week, so fingers crossed!
Seedlings
Category: Vegetables
Porch Arugula
I harvested a huge bowl of arugula on my back porch today. Now there are only leaf lettuces left in that big pot and they have all the space they need. The radishes, flowers and herbs are looking good. I also transplanted a Thai pepper into a big container yesterday (bought as, sadly, none my my seeds germinated).
Spring
I spent a couple of hours in the garden this afternoon weeding, trellising the peas and chatting to passers-by. I also harvested my first three stalks of asparagus and cut some lily of the valley.
Spring Planting and First Harvest
I have not been in the garden for a while because I had COVID for the past three and a half weeks and was not feeling too great. I had managed to sow peas and spring greens in early April and they are sprouting. Today, I did more direct sowing. I sowed red beets (Detroit Dark Red), carrots (Scarlet Nantes and Danvers Half Long), Rainbow Chard and cilantro. I also transplanted a parsley plant I had purchased a few days ago and four kale seedlings I had started indoors a few weeks ago. We still do not have water in the garden. Fingers crossed for some showers in the next few days, so I do not have to schlepp water from home.
I also harvested my first crops today, spring onions. They were so fragrant! And the asparagus is getting ready.
Repotting
I repotted my seedlings today. 43 seedlings overall (7 cells did not have any germination): tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, basil. That included five kale plants that were repotted as well and are currently hardening off on the back porch. I also bought some rosemary, thyme, parsley and calendula seedlings yesterday for the back porch. The radishes, lettuces and arugula I direct-sowed in containers a couple of weeks ago are looking really good.
Early April Seedlings
First Direct Sowing
The plot does not like much yet, but things are happening. Today I sowed peas, spring greens (in between the two rows of peas) and spinach and rapini (a first for me). And so it begins …
Reseeding
This morning I reseeded a few seedlings that did not germinate, mainly peppers. Only one Jalapeno and one Sweet Pickle germinated, none of the others. I also reseeded kale – Blue Curly Scotch this time as the Tuscan kale did not germinate (old seeds).
Start of the Season
All my seed orders are in now. I will write up a detailed post about all the varieties I ordered this year soon. Today, I started the first indoor seedlings, 30 cells in total: basil (2 Thai Basil, 6 Nufar), peppers (2 Hot Thai, 2 Jalapeno, 2 Bulgarian Pimento, 2 Sweet Pickle Peppper), eggplant (3 Nadia, 3 Ping Tung, 3 Green Round Thai – a freebie from Sand Hill Preservation Center) and kale (3 Blue Curled Scotch and 2 Tuscan). So exciting!
The Garden Still Feeds Us Through the Winter
I now really finished the last of my butternut squash. I had cubed it and stored it in the fridge for a couple of weeks. I roasted it with some leeks and Brussels that were past their prime and topped everything with goat cheese and toasted pumpkin seeds. Delicious! The next morning, for breakfast I had the leftovers over sauteed kale, topped with a fried egg. So good.
