Spring Gardening

We had summer-like weather here in Southeastern Massachusetts a few weeks ago. In Mid-March, we had a week of daytime temperatures in the seventies and several close to eighty degrees Fahrenheit. Everyone had the springtime bug. Many people around here dug out their shorts, tank tops and flip flops.

My kids and I also got the bug- the gardening bug, that is. We cleaned out the vegetable beds, turned the soil, and removed the rocks that seem to pop up every year. We knew it was early, and maybe even a bit risky, but we decided to plant pea pods. We figured there was as slight risk of a hard frost that would kill them but we didn't care. We'd just replant, if needed.

Here's a little photographic essay to show the process and results:

18 March. We placed the seeds in a zig zag pattern below the support wires.

We poked them in up to our second knuckles- the perfect depth.

31 March. The first little sprouts appeared.

5 April. Nearly all of the seeds have sprouted.

5 April. More leaves appear on each sprout.

Here in the northeast, now is the perfect time to plant cold weather crops like pea pods, arugula, and kale. These hardy vegetables can handle a light frost. A hard frost could kill your plants, but that seems unlikely at this point since we barely had a hard frost all winter.

Have you started planting outside, yet? What are you growing?

For more vegetable gardening tips, check out these posts:

Confessions of a Passive Gardener

Planting Time (Includes more details about planting pea pods)

Gardening Without a Yard (includes suggested books)

Early Growth in the Garden (includes a recipe)

Garden Progress

Our garden is growing beautifully this year. Unlike last year's terrible weather (during the month of June we had something like 26 days of rain), this year's has been perfect. We've harvested loads of lettuce, kale, and pea pods already. One jalapeno pepper plant already has a tiny pepper growing and the zucchini have set flowers which means squashes won't be far behind.

Here's a view of the garden taken early this evening:

In the left front corner, behind the fence, is the zucchini. Working toward the right you see parsley, then broccoli and red onions. In the back left corner is the cabbage. Pea pods are straight ahead being picked by my daughter with tomatoes to the right of that. (My kids eat more pea pods raw, right off the vines, then they do cooked). In the middle bed is the post with the hummingbird feeder I wrote about last time. Pole beans have just popped out of the ground and will soon be winding their way up the pole. Around the pole beans are peppers, eggplant, and marigolds. Outside the fence is lined with various flowers- marigolds to deter pests, cleome and cosmos to attract butterflies and hummingbirds, and on the north side (behind the pea pods), sunflowers to attract birds in late summer. In the far back left of the photo, against the building, is our cold frame. We grew arugula and rosemary until mid-December last year, but I need to learn more about maintaining produce all winter long.

I'm thrilled with the results so far, but I want pause to tell you that we have been working on this garden for about 5 years. Our first year was a disaster- the seeds were washed away in heavy rain and rabbits ate all the plants we put in during one night. We gave up that year- we had a young son and it was too much to redo everything. The next year we got smart- built inexpensive raised beds and put a cheap fence around the whole thing. We had more success. Then we put in a real fence with a gate and added more compost to the beds. Terrific success. Then last year... virtually nothing was productive except the basil. It was a bad year.

My message... start small and add to your successes. If you planted a small garden, or in some pots, and had success this year, build on it. If things didn't go quite so well, as with our first year, take a step back and plan for how you'll improve next year. Take baby steps. You know the old saying: Rome wasn't built in a day! It's easy to get caught up in trying to do everything all at once. Cut yourself some slack and celebrate each step you take toward growing your own produce.

Here are some close-ups of the produce:

Cabbage

Eggplant

Romaine Lettuce

Pea Pods

How are your gardening efforts going? Some of you left comments that you were planting this year. Others told me in person. Please share your successes with us. What challenges are you facing?

First Harvest

On April 11th, we planted mesclun mix and pea pods from seed. On April 29th I shared photos of our first sprouts pushing up from the soil. Yesterday, we harvested our first mesclun mix and enjoyed a lovely salad with dinner. My son, who isn't a big salad eater most of the year, devoured his. Smart boy... eating in season is the healthiest, most earth friendly way to go!

Here it is before we harvested:

We also have our first flowers on the pea pod plants, so pea pods will be here soon!

Here's a lovely head of romaine developing. I bought a "6 pack" of romaine from our local garden center and planted them about 2 1/2 weeks ago. This one will be ready in about a week.

While I was photographing the pea pod flowers, these mating dragonflies happened by. They stayed locked together like this until we went in for dinner at least 30 minutes later.

Here's a photo of our whole garden.  The raised beds measure approximately 200 square feet.

You can see, I haven't mulched with the straw, yet. Maybe tomorrow! In addition to the mesclun mix and pea pods, we also planted bush beans and pole beans from seed. Then we purchased 4-packs and 6-packs of small plants for the rest. We have 6 kale, many varieties of lettuce (roughly 24 plants), many red onions,  4 tomatoes, 6 cabbages, 6 broccoli, 4 red bell peppers, 4 green bell peppers, one zucchini, 6 parsley, 4 celery, 4 eggplant, and 9 basil inside the fence. There will be 4 jalapeno peppers, 3 basil, and 4 butternut squash outside the fence. This is risky because we have hungry bunnies and woodchucks in the area, but the garden is at maximum capacity. I've found the basil usually isn't disturbed and I expect the same will be true of the hot peppers. The squash is another story. It may become lunch for the wildlife, but I have to give it a try.

The volume of plants may seem too much to you for this relatively small space, but we've planted roughly this much each year. (The only exception is the zucchini- by the end of the summer it will take over an entire corner of the garden and overflow the walkway. I train it to grow away from the other plants and just accept that my walkway will be cut off eventually). The key to such productivity is the raised beds and excellent soil quality, thanks to awesome compost from my parents' sheep maure and our own compost bin. For more information, please read The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith. Everything you need to know is in there. Trust me!

How are your vegetables coming? Did you plant in pots, in the school yard, on a rooftop, or in a backyard garden? Please share your successes and failures.

Early Growth in the Garden

On April 7th we planted seeds in our garden. I blogged about it here.

After 8 days, we already had sprouts:Pea Pod, 8 days

Mesclun mix, 8 days.

Three weeks after planting, the plants can now be identified by their appearance. Those pea greens are almost ready for eating! If you haven't tried pea greens before, watch for them in your local farmer's market. They're popular early in the season when other crops aren't ready yet. I like to toss some in my salad. They're also good topped with grilled salmon. We probably won't pick ours as pea greens (unless the plants need thinning) because we REALLY love pea pods. If we pick the greens, there won't be any pods.

Pea pods, 3 weeks


Mesclun mix, 3 weeks.

Last year I bought a 6 pack of pak choi from our local garden center for the first time. I've always loved pac choi but hadn't grown it before then. Some of it went to seed and now we have a bunch of volunteer plants. I plan to let them grow a bit more and then harvest some tiny ones to eat and let the others fully mature. (They're much too crowded right now).
If you've never tried pac choi, I highy recommend it. It's a vegetable that's popular in Asian cooking. My favorite way to eat it is in stir fry. The key is to not overcook it- just a few minutes in a hot wok or saute pan is enough. Pac choi is readily available in most farmer's markets and grocery stores. In the grocery store, look in the produce section near the cabbages. They look kind of like small romaine heads with smoother, more rounded leaves that are less densely packed than romaine leaves.

For a side dish, try this:

1. Cut off the very bottom and wash the leaves in plenty of cold water- soil can get trapped in the base of the plant.
   If they're large, you can cut them crosswise into large pieces an inch or more wide. I frequently leave them whole.
2. Heat a wok or saute pan over medium to high heat. Add a bit of olive oil or canola oil (Maybe a tablespoon). When the oil shimmers, add the pak choi.
3. Saute it quickly over high heat until the leaves become bright green (This happens quickly, so watch closely). If the pan seems too dry, add a couple of tablespoons of water.
4. Drizzle the leaves with oyster sauce and serve. (Find Oyster Sauce in the international or Asian food aisle in your grocery store near the soy sauces and teriyaki sauces. If it's not available there, you may need to go to an Asian market. For my local readers, we go to Kam Man in Quincy, MA.

For an even healthier option, you can steam the pac choi for a few minutes and then drizzle it with oyster sauce.