Fruits & Veggies,  Gardening

First Spring Plantings – 2019

First Spring Plantings

It’s early March but the weather is warming quickly.  I think it’s going to be a hot summer.  I need to get a drip irrigation system installed before I put in all the plants so I can ensure everyone gets enough to drink while conserving as much as possible and keeping the water bill low.  I’m designing the system now but in the meantime, I need to get my early spring veggies in the ground.

In my last post, Bed Preparation, I got the garden all cleaned up and ready to plant.  Now is the perfect time to plant radishes, peas, spinach, and more lettuce.  These veggies will come and go quickly because they don’t tolerate heat very well.  They appreciate cold, moist soil so spring is their time to shine!

First Spring Plantings  

I’ve had this lettuce growing under cover all winter.  It’s been slow growing but now that it’s warming up it’s really coming to life.  I pulled back the cover today and removed the straw I’ve been using to keep the weeds down.  I loosened the soil a little and then used a board to create straight rows for the seeds.

 

I’m planting a row of radishes on the left of the green leaf lettuce, then a row of red leaf lettuce to the right of it.  Next is a row of spinach (my first year growing spinach!) and then a row of peas.  I plan to use this bed for brassicas too but these early spring veggies will be long gone when the kale is tall and the bok choy is wide, so this should be perfect.

I planted my seeds on March 9th and saw little sprouts on March 21st.  Aren’t radish sprouts the cutest?

 

 

 

Radishes – Planted March 9th, ready to eat April 21st – 43 days

 

Spinach – Planted March 9th, ready to eat April 24th – 46 days

 

Peas – Planted March 9th, blossoming heavily, pods forming nicely. Should be ready to eat within the next week or two.

   

Red leaf lettuce – March 9th and April 24th

 

Green leaf lettuce from the winter sowing, still going strong

 

We’re eating our spinach now and are really enjoying it.  I purchased these seeds from Johnny’s Seeds and the spinach variety is definitely a winner!  It has a good depth of flavor in it’s fresh, tender, and nutrient-rich leaves.  It’s grown quickly and gave us a nice transition from winter kale to summer greens.

Garden Meal

Our typical weekend breakfast is sauteed greens with scrambled eggs.  Loading up the pan with a huge cutting of fresh spinach straight from the garden is the best way to really appreciate the coming garden abundance.  If you’ve never had fresh greens for breakfast, I would recommend trying it.  Adding greens to eggs bulks up the scramble and provides a powerful punch of iron, vitamin C, vitamin K, copper, and B vitamins.

 

 

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