Sunday, March 14, 2010

Sprouts

From Gardening

This week, we saw the first sprouts come up in the raised bed. The winning vegetable, who persevered through snow and colder temperatures - the radish! This is good news, because radishes are one plant you can harvest and re-plant immediately.

From Gardening

To complete the chart of Raised Bed #1 - Cold Weather Vegetables, we transplanted sprouted cabbage, kale, swiss chard, and lettuce this weekend, as well as sowing the marigold seeds into the ground. I am actually not sure how old the sprouts are supposed to be when you do this, but they were over three inches tall and starting to fall over in their little plastic pots. It was a challenge moving them and planting them without breaking them, but we'll keep a close eye this week to see how it goes.

From Gardening

This week I also replaced the two cauliflower plants and one romaine because they didn't seem to fare very well after the snow. Other than that most things seem to be alive, but I know things just take longer to grow when it is cold. The plants may seem less abundant in this 15 day picture, because I cut all the leaves from the lettuce to encourage them to keep growing and producing. Then I brought them inside, washed them, put them in the salad spinner, and promptly forgot about them. Actually eating the things we harvest is going to be another challenge for the year!

Yesterday I also started seeds indoors for some tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplants, and peppers. We bought strawberries to put in Raised Bed #2 - I'm hoping to get a planting mix delivery this week, maybe as early as tomorrow. I was inspired late to grow strawberries, because really I could have planted them when I planted the greens (from what I understand). We're approaching our region's typical last-frost date, which is around when all the rest of the vegetables can be planted outside. I want to be ready!

In case you read this on a blog reader, come check out how Nathaniel has changed our layout. It looks extra gardeny now.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Jenny and Nathaniel,
    I found you via your comment at the "Urban Garden Project" blog. It's funny to see how similarly our gardens are expanding, yours in SC and mine in WA!

    This is my 2nd year of square foot gardening, and I am expanding from one bed to five this year.

    I also have seedlings going in the window inside. This year I set up a card table next to the living room window to get maximum light, plus have 2 fluorescent lights on them too. I have tomatoes, lettuce, and kale up, and waiting for the green onions and sweet peppers to emerge.

    Check out my blog if you want to see another zone 7 SFG!

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  2. Hey love the blog especially all the pictures. I still haven't decided what to do for the grids on mine yet but I like the idea of the string for the same reasons you are using them. I will be stopping back by to check up on your progress.

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