Planting Begins!

 This is one of my favorite times of the year, when we start planting our seeds! I will tell you that we try direct seed most of our garden. There are a few crops we will either start indoors or buy seedlings for including peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant. But the real fun is watching the sprouts push up out of the ground. The possibilities of the garden are then evident.

Planting seeds...

 We are planting a variety of seeds this spring we always mark our calendar as to what we have planted and when.  I recommend that you keep your calendars from year to year, at least a five year rotation of calendars. You can then start to see patterns in the weather and  and improve or adjust just when you plant your seeds and seedlings.

We also update our calendar when we harvest or transplant seedlings as it helps us plan the next year planting cycle. For example if I know that my cauliflower is going to take all summer to mature I could plant, perhaps, some radishes in that area before the cauliflower blocks the sun. When  you have a small space you want to take advantage of some slow growing crops.

New Composter

This year we were able to upgrade our compost process to a more eye appealing barrel system that rotates. We are finding that we have rich soil to use every 4-6 weeks. We bought it from Costco.                                                                                            

Before the seeds...

The garden has been had compost added and it has been tilled. We have marked the areas in which, we think, our seeds will be planted. It is a work in progress and there is quite a bit of a banter between Daniel's wants and mine. He prefers more room for peppers. I want my kale, Swiss chard and most important collard greens. I love peppers but want long lasting greens that will take us into the fall. We will both win at the end as we compromise and pick the best sun and soil in the garden for our favorites.

2016 First Direct Seed Planting

A consistent practice is that we mark what we plant and when. If you keep your calendars and note planting, successes and failures it is great way to improve on the process.

On April 6th we planted spinach, cabbage kohlrabi, bok choy, kale and collard greens.

Spring!!

This was captured on a beautiful day. We got walloped with snow a few days later.