Gardening: Greens Planting Day
The other day, I started a tray of tomato and chili pepper seedlings indoors. Slightly late, but hopefully not too late. I'll need to stop by the hardware store in the next few days and pick up a plant light before the seedlings break ground.
Today was the day to start cold-tolerant greens outside. Our landlords have given us two of the three raised beds to plant in, and I'm trying to make the most of them. The rear bed has two rows of dwarf blue curled kale, two rows of chard, a row each of Yaya carrots, Hakurei salad turnips, Royal Chantenay carrots, broccoli raab, buttercrunch lettuce, Bibb lettuce, and Little Gem Romaine lettuce, and a half row each of radicchio, mizuna, and cilantro. The other bed has a couple Copenhagen Market cabbages and a few Pixie cabbages at one end, and at the other end (where I'll put the tomatoes and peppers once it's warmer) I have another three rows of the different lettuces to grow until the peppers and tomatoes are ready. Some marigold seeds saved from my parents' garden are planted around the kale and cabbages in hopes of warding off aphids.
Fun tip: if you don't have anything to label rows with, a big yogurt container plus a knife gives you plenty of little labelable, white stakes.
Hopefully little green seedlings will pop up soon, indoors and outside. After last frost, I've got more herbs to plant, and I also plan on getting some hop vines growing in a 1/2-barrel planter on the sunniest part of the patio.
Today was the day to start cold-tolerant greens outside. Our landlords have given us two of the three raised beds to plant in, and I'm trying to make the most of them. The rear bed has two rows of dwarf blue curled kale, two rows of chard, a row each of Yaya carrots, Hakurei salad turnips, Royal Chantenay carrots, broccoli raab, buttercrunch lettuce, Bibb lettuce, and Little Gem Romaine lettuce, and a half row each of radicchio, mizuna, and cilantro. The other bed has a couple Copenhagen Market cabbages and a few Pixie cabbages at one end, and at the other end (where I'll put the tomatoes and peppers once it's warmer) I have another three rows of the different lettuces to grow until the peppers and tomatoes are ready. Some marigold seeds saved from my parents' garden are planted around the kale and cabbages in hopes of warding off aphids.
Fun tip: if you don't have anything to label rows with, a big yogurt container plus a knife gives you plenty of little labelable, white stakes.
Hopefully little green seedlings will pop up soon, indoors and outside. After last frost, I've got more herbs to plant, and I also plan on getting some hop vines growing in a 1/2-barrel planter on the sunniest part of the patio.