Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Parsnips on the table and seeds in the soil

I have seeds in the ground two and a half weeks early!   Wow!! 

 Today was a marathon of digging and planting.  After three days of warm weather the soil was thawed-out and dried-out, so I began turning the beds in my garden.  The forecast for the next few days has rain, so I knew I had to get a lot done.  I pulled the second half of the parsnips and turned in some good mulch. 

Most recent addition to the garden series time lapse
 In the bed closest to the plum tree I planted greens, radishes and favas, as well as lettuce and kale to transplant.  I planted crops that like sun but are quick, in 'the shade zone' because by the time there is shade from the tree, these crops will be done.

Nero di Toscano (kale) with Pirat (lettuce)
4 varieties of nameless saved lettuce seed from last year
Pak Choi
Bloomsdale Longstanding spinach (seed is from '07)
Plum Purple and Halestone (radishes)
The Windsor favas are on the end and will not be shaded, I know they take a while

Two beds down....

Golden Sweet peas went in, next to a mystery snow pea that I love!
Purple Top turnips went on along side the peas. I'm trying to get a quick crop in.
Bull's Blood and Red Ace beets went in there as well.
I have my fingers crossed for all of these seeds, but have more of each of them incase they don't come up.  

So far I think I'm off to a solid start, so many early veg varieties, and I am digging around in the garden on April first!!!!

My kit and booty

An update on my little green houses:
Cabbages-  these look so great!  They are up and lively, they don't have true leaves yet, when they do I'll start hardening them off a bit quicker then transplant then straight into the ground!!!  Woohoo!

Leeks- haven't seen any:(

Onions- I see a few but they are super tiny, don't think they will get to the right size any time soon.  Not a big deal, it was a great learning experience.

Spinach- 3 are up, no true leaves yet... 

And so it begins!!!

3 comments:

Gardeness said...

Sounds like lots of great things going in. I've never done fava beans. Are they pretty easy?

chaiselongue said...

It's great to start the spring planting and sowing, isn't it? Soon your plum tree will have blossom too. I got the idea of eating fava leaves from Kate at Hills and plains seedsavers in Australia. You can take the young leaves from the top once the rest of the plant is flowering. The taste of beans - not surprisingly, I suppose!

B + S said...

Gardeness- I haven't had luck with favas yet! I planted them too late and too close to each other in 2007. They got black on the top and didn't set any pods until late August. That was my only experience... So this time around I planted them at the 'proper' time, and gave them some room.... sill crossing my fingers!

Chaiselongue- Is there a tip to have them set pods?? I have bees but thought that they were self pollinating?!

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