Nibblers!

Note to self... Fence asparagus.

 

Cold frame lettuce

The first trip to the greenhouse provided some useful context. Their lettuce starts (in flats) were about the same size as mine, maybe a little smaller. BUT, the lettuce in their cold frames, planted last fall and over wintered were fully harvestable, and their spinach, planted last September and over wintered was 10 inches tall!

The cold frame arugula is also interesting... The direct seeded row was started 5 days after the transplanted row and is twice as big. It gets a little more light, it has probably been kept a little wetter since I used those cardboard planting pots and left the plants in them, and there are differences in soil.

 

 

Asparagus...

The first tiny shoot. Hooray!

 

Infrastructure

So as not to have hose running all over the yard all season, we have been planning to bury a hose from the house spicot to the garden FOR YEARS...

Today we rented the T-4 Ground Hog from Best Line and cautiously started it up. Brilliant!

 

The hose runs through 1 1/2" PVC the whole length of the trench. At the garden sink it will be connected to a 4-way splitter to feed the garden, a hand watering hose and drip lines. 

 

 

 

 

Raspberries!

Leaves are budding, April 17th.

 

Beets, parsnips, greens

After fencing all the peas and the fava beans to protect them from varmints (actually, Edie (the dog) already dug up and ate some of the pre-soaked peas, but never mind,) I moved on to bed preparation and some planting.

I got three 7 ft rows of beets planted, three 4 ft rows of parsnips, and transplanted some of the pathetic collard, chard, and kale seedlings that have been doing nothing in flats in the cold frame.

Then I gave the carrot transplants a try. They had grown a couple true leaves, but apparently had put more energy into their roots. Transplanting was definitely a challenge. I decided to go ahead with the experiment despite my doubts. Here's what they looked like pulled apart from each other in the flat. 

 In the cold frame I was able to transplant some strong looking seedlings from densely planted rows into new rows.

Update: On April 22nd I left the cold frame cover on until mid-afternoon and completely COOKED the contents. So... we will not find out the result of the carrot seedling experiment.

Sorrel, garlic, and rhubarb are responding to the spring weather, but the rest if the garden is still just dirt. 

Parsnips?

Look what I missed last fall!