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.

Day 8 Update

From Gardening

Hmm, well, the first raised bed looks suspiciously like it did last week. I keep telling myself, first the seeds and transplants send out roots! Except for one thing - snow.

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It snowed on Tuesday, just like the weather people said it might. It was pretty cold for a while but most of it had melted by mid-day Wednesday. The plants don't have that mushy dead look when you KNOW something has been too cold, but they're not thriving like the backup plants in my garage either. We may have jumped the gun. At the same time, we've had an unusually cold winter down here in the south, I mean, it even snowed in Charleston.

From Gardening

On the other hand, the seeds I planted in the tray have sprouted pretty well, although the two rows of spinach seem to be a bit lazy. I was worried it wasn't getting enough light in the garage, so it hangs out in front of the sliding door in the kitchen. Hopefully they will start filling out a little and not grow too much taller!

Yesterday I sat and planned out what I think I'll do for the other two raised beds. I also discovered I need to get some seeds started indoors for some of those plants that can't be planted until after the last spring frost. I keep reminding myself this is the year of experimentation. And if something I try doesn't work, I'll do it differently next year!