Radishes, Parsnips, Carrots, Dill, Mache, Borage, Arugula--I can't wait

I am so happy--I got everything planted that I wanted to get planted today.  (I'm not going to have time for the next week or so.)  Last spring, I was traveling and missed the early spring.  This year, I'm really hoping to make a delicious salad for Easter. 

Not only that, but I harvested a wheelbarrow full of beautiful compost that I really needed to spread on half of one of my beds.  And there's still more compost to use. 

Today, I planted these seeds:

Radishes:  How I love radishes.   I went insane and planted a whole bunch of them.  I put three varieties in:  plain round red ones, a multi-colored mix, and a long white variety.  I love all kinds.  Radishes and dip are ever so much tastier than chips and dip.  Radishes give a salad spice.  They have to be harvested while they are relatively small and before the weather gets hot in order to taste good. 

Parsnips:  I've never grown these before, so I decided I would try them this year.  I planted them in with my radishes.  I was expecting parsnip seeds to look more like carrot seeds, so I was shocked to open the packet and discover how big and strange-looking they are.  I'm supposed to harvest them after frost.  I'm not sure how that will work out with such a long growing season here, but hopefully they will be tasty cooked in butter. 

Carrots:  I also planted these with radishes to mark where I planted.  I put in a lovely rainbow mix.  Carrots are fun, but I don't love them as much as radishes because they take longer, and I don't like the way they taste as much.  But I think my kids will really enjoy harvesting them and eating them. 

Dill:  I planted a variety of dill that will grow extra tall.  Dill is so important for attracting painted lady caterpillars.  In fact, I mostly grow it for the beautiful caterpillars and butterflies, but we do use it some for cooking.  It is also a tasty snack  for my boys when they are out in the backyard. 

Mache:  Another experiment for me.  Mache is a type of cool-season salad green.  I'm worried that it was a little late in the season to plant it, but hopefully it will come up.  I actually tried to plant it before but never found the seedlings.  Either it didn't come up, or I thought it was a weed and pulled it.  (Note to self: mache in approximately the center of far right garden bed). 

Borage:  This herb produces cucumber tasting leaves and flowers.  I put it in the corners of the bed I will plant tomatoes in this year.  Supposedly, borage is good for tomatoes somehow.  I don't know if that's true, but I'm sure it attracts pollinators.  It's fun for my kids to eat the flowers.  And I love eating the flowers too. 

Arugula:  I already put in some arugula plants, but I sowed some seeds today too, as you can't really have too much arugula.  I discovered the secret to making the plants last--just pick the leaves mercilessly.  The sturdy, weedy plant does fine with just a few.  But arugula inevitably will bolt, and then the leaves don't taste good, but the peppery flowers are delicious.  Arugula is a funny plant, so expensive in stores but so easy to grow in cool weather.  It is a million times better when picked fresh out of the garden, like all salad greens, but more so. 

And my pea seeds were sown on Monday.  I am so excited about snacking on what we call "pea candy" in late May and early June.  (That makes my kids sound kind of deprived.  I'm not one of those moms who doesn't let her kids eat real candies or sweets--they really do love the garden peas like candy though.)  

To top off such a great gardening day, we're getting a gentle rain on the already moist soil tonight.  With sandy soil and raised beds, I never have to worry about getting too much water.  I love it when my planting works out to be in sync with the weather. 

Grow, tasty little plants, grow. 

Early Spring Planting

On  Friday, I went to the local garden center and bought spinach and, yes, my favorite, arugula.  I also bought some beets on a whim.  I've grown beets from seed before in the fall.  It warms up here so fast, I thought they might do better if I got plants, so that they could mature before it got too hot.

Time to get the garden started after a winter that was colder and wetter than usual.  We don't get much snow here, and it's really not pleasant to be outdoors in a cold, muddy swamp, so I am thrilled that spring is slowly creeping in.

My garlic grew beautifully over the winter, and I expect to be able to harvest it in June.  I won't make the same mistake I made a couple of years ago, when I planted tomatoes amongst the garlic.  The tomatoes grew so fast that I never found most of my garlic!  Of course, I managed to kill one of my garlic plants while I was weeding, but those things happen.  I have many garlic plants, so I did not grieve too much.  

On Saturday, I had a swim meet and meant to at least water my seedlings but didn't.  Today (Sunday) I planted them.  Four of the arugula plants looked a little wilted, and so did a couple of the beets.  I am so mad that I didn't water them yesterday.  But I watered them as they went in.  I'm pretty sure the arugula will recover.  And I planted while it was drizzling.  Hopefully, we'll get plenty of rain this week so those roots can grow.

This week, I'd like to plant these seeds:

• garden pea
• radishes
• parsnips

And if I get to them

• carrots
• more radishes
• arugula
• lettuce

But the first ones are my priority.  I always plant radishes with carrots, and I think I'll do the same thing with the parsnips.

I love early spring crops.  I wasn't looking forward to planting today, as the temperature was in the 40's, and the sky was overcast, but it was a humid nice kind of cool outside, a lovely day.  

Peas, delicious peas

We've had a wonderful garden/shelling pea crop this year.  I have them growing up against my tomato cages.  In previous years we've just snacked on the peans outside.  I told my younger son that they were "pea candy."  When he was 2 and 3, he just loved picking them and eating the little peas.  He still does, and this year he's even better at picking out the ones that are fat enough to eat.  My older son likes them too.

This year, we had so many peas that younger son and I went out last evening and actually picked enough to sautee in butter and serve with our hot dogs!  I couldn't believe it.  Next year, I might even grow another bed of peas so that we can freeze some.  

The variety I used this year came from Burpee.  It is called Burpeeana, and it is the best pea I have tried.  I've also tried Maestro and Mr. Big, with less success, although they were good too.  The peas are very tasty, and the plants are vigorous and healthy.  I will definitely grow this one again. 

It's a bit tricky to grow peas here because it gets hot so fast--we don't have much of a spring, so any variety has got to be able to withstand heat.  Any time I tried to grow peas in the fall, the bunnies or squirrels ate them.

Hurray for peas!

Weekend Projects

Today, I went and bought landscape fabric to cover my little coneflower bed. I plan to rake off the mulch and paper, fertilize and add soil, put down the fabric, cut slits and plant my little seedlings (20). Then, I plan to put paper over the patch right next to the sidewalk where the grass grows extremely vigorously (will already have landscape fabric on it) and put a rubber mulch strip down on top of that. I am hoping that this will be a very, very low maintenance bed!

A couple of pink tulips are blooming. I'm not real happy with the tulips. They seem to be a mix that blooms at all different times, so I won't get a big mass bloom. I may cut off the leaves after they bloom and start with a new mix next year.

I think I'm going to go ahead and plant the peppers out tomorrow.

I've got to put one shasta daisy and one banana pepper seedling in peat pots.

I really want to plant some flowers. I have some ideas for a row of flowers around the edges of my vegetable garden space. I don't know how much I'll be able to get to until next weekend.

The shasta daisies got really unhappy in my seed starters, and I had to move them all to peat pots in a potting mix. The coneflower is still in my seed starter, looking very happy and healthy. I hope it remains so out in its new home.

I bought a new plant friend today, a greek oregano plant, at Lowe's. I originally tried to grow oregano from seed with little success. And then I read that its best to buy a young plant because you can't reliably grow a really tasty oregano from seed--each plant will taste a little differently. Also, I had plain oregano seeds, and Greek oregano is supposed to be the best for cooking. All according to Ed Smith of the The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, anyway.

I'll have to get a new clay pot for it. My perinneal herb collection now includes:

• peppermint
• spearamint
• sage
  
• garlic chives
• chives
• St. Johns Wort
• oregano

I got a nice new load of garden books at the library today. I wish I were less tired so I could stay up and read them. I have water my houseplants before I crash.

Onions

Good link for planting onions in the fall for those of us in zone 8:

Onion Planting

Arugula

I somehow missed this funny story about President (then Senator) Obama and arugula from 2007:

Obama talks arugula -- again -- in Iowa

I am so excited about my own arugula. I gave Isaac an arugula sprout this afternoon, and he wanted more. It shouldn't be more than a week or two when we can start eating it. It looks like I planted arugula first on March 10. So it hasn't even been a month since I planted it. I'm very impatient.

The pink beauty and saxa 2 radishes appearto grow a lot faster than my sparkler ones. I would have thought the sparklers would be ready by now. Well, I'm planning on a fresh salad for Easter, so I'll be harvesting some lettuce from my earth box and hopefully radishes from the garden too.

Tuesday night is looking really cold. I hope the newspaper that I plan to cover my tomatoes with works. The forecast is currently showing a low of 33 F.

We got a good rain today, so I'm off the hook watering for a few days at least.

It's funny that I'm doing everything so early this year when last year it was all so late.

more seeds in the ground

I planted more radishes, carrots, and arugula yesterday. I planted the carrots and radishes together, as was recommended, since the carrots are SO SLOW at germinating, and the radishes supposedly break up the soil for them. Carrots really are slow to grow. Really, really slow. That's my third batch of carrots and radishes. I am guessing I'll have some radishes to eat in a week or two and carrots maybe in a month, maybe more. The peas get a little taller each day, but they are still small.

I now understand why a lot of people just go to the store, buy young plants, and stick them in the ground. (Not that you can do that with carrots and radishes.) But still. Starting from seed takes a lot of patience and a lot of hope. And a lot of making sure the soil stays moist.