Yesterday I planted out the first bed of the season. I started out by turning the bed over, I then amended with some of my well rotted compost & kelp meal and then scratched it in. This year I am trying kelp meal for the first time, last year I used blood and bone meal instead.This bed was planted out with greens, radishes & broccoli. The idea is the green will be harvested just before the broccoli over takes them. All my transplants seem to be much smaller then last years. I started them at the same time and gave them the same care so it is kind of strange. Either way they are healthy & green so I should end up with the same results. Below I will go into details of each variety:
Purple Sprouting Broccoli from seed shared by Miss M. This isthe spring version and I am looking forward to tasting this crop.
Waltham Broccoli, there are a total of 12 plants this spring.
Bonsai Pac Choi, showing a little slug damage. I plantedfour transplants and half a row was sown.
Tatsoi, planted 8 of these.
Little Gem Romaine. It is a nice small romaine, thereis a row of 8 of these as well.
Pinetree Lettuce Mix. This is the best lettuce mix I havetried, it has a very nice variation. I planted 8 clumps of
this lettuce mix.
At the front of the bed I tucked in a row of Crop CircleRadishes that were shared by Yan at Soggy Creek Seed Co.
100% guaranteed to prevent crop circles :-)
The last thing that went in was a row of Bright Lights Chardfrom seed shared by Daphne. This was planted out in another
bed as it is a longer season crop. Daphne gave me some of this
seed last year as well and it was an excellent crop.
Ah, you see, here's where we separate the pros from the newbies. I'm still struggling with 'smart' planting. I need to interplant more and take advantage of different maturity times.
ReplyDeleteLooking good ! I hope the PSB does well for you. Weren't you growing some regular PSB too ?
Dan, everything is looking good...some of my broccoli and cabbage seem to be slow in growing this year also...I figure they will take off soon though with all the sunshine we are having : )
ReplyDeleteMiss M - I am growing the overwintering variety of PSB as well. I think I will seed it at the end of May and plant out late June. I have tried over wintering regular broccoli here and it didn't go well so I hope the hardy PSB does better.
ReplyDeleteSunny - I'm hoping the same thing. Bring on the sunshine!
your soil looks beautiful. I hope the kelp works wonders.
ReplyDeleteLooking good! Such a fun time of year! Glad to see the beginning of the season!
ReplyDeleteHi Dan, go the rainbow chard, it is such a winner in my books! So many colours and it all taste delicious, although sadly the snails agree!
ReplyDeleteGood stuff, Dan! Let us know how the kelp meal does for ya....
ReplyDeleteSuch pretty little transplants. I am still babying mine by carrying them in and out during the day as temps are still close to freezing during the night.
ReplyDeleteIt's cool to see the subtle differences between zone 5a and 6a.
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ReplyDeleteI've got some Bright Lights that overwintered - I put them out late to see what would happen - they are just coming up to harvest now - I shall try and remember to do that again!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it such a joy to plant out? I can never fathom how you always get so much out of your garden with your short growing season. It's fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI have a little slug damage on some of my chois too. They aren't too bad yet though. Hopefully they won't get eaten to the ground. My fall planted crops will be bigger when they go in to give them a better start against those slugs.
ReplyDeleteThose packages of seeds from Soggy Creek Seed Co. just crack me up!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful garden coming together Dan. I see good eats in your future.