Sunday, March 21, 2010

And She Tries Again!!

Saturday was the first day of spring, and what better way to celebrate it than...well, actually, I celebrated it by going into the city for a bourbon tasting. But Sunday is the second day of spring, and what better way to celebrate it than planting 2 rows of spinach and half a package of sugar snap peas.

One of my goals for this year was to get the garden started earlier than usual so that I might actually have 3 seasons of harvests. Years ago, when I first came upon the book, Crockett's Victory Garden, I was inspired by Jim Crockett's description of going out into the garden on a cold, damp March day and planting peas. Most years, I plant Sugar Snap peas, rather than the English peas he planted, but I always wanted to find myself doing it in March. And it always seemed to be at least April before I managed to do it. One reason for this is my inability to 'put the garden to bed for the winter'. By the end of every growing season, the garden is full of wild, out-of-control tomato plants, and leggy squash plants and weeds. It's not that I don't know what to do. I am aware that sometime in September or early October, I should go out there, pull off all tomatoes even though they are green, and pull up the plants. And I LIKE green tomatoes, so it should not be a problem. But it always seems that if I just leave them a little longer, I will have just a few more tasty red tomatoes. That never happens.

This year was no different, I never put the garden to bed for the winter. What was different, though, is that this year, on the second day of spring, I went outside and pulled up all the dead plants and weeds in just one growing box. And I had help. Bill came out and pulled and dug, and Shelby came out and dug and rolled. In about 2 hours, we had cleaned out one box, and cut down all the nasty, thorny bushes that were trying to grow, and that, by late April and early May, would begin to shade the garden and become unruly. Then we drove down to Home Depot and bought 4 bags of compost to enrich and replace some of the soil. And, because of the miracle of Daylight's Savings, it was still light so I planted half a bag of Sugar Snap Peas that may be ready to pick by the last couple of days of May. Not only will I have snap peas sooner that usual, but this means I will be able to harvest them, pull up the spent bean plants, and actually put in tomato seedlings or maybe the cute little Ronde de Nice heirloom zucchini squashes. It also means I have time to put in another planting of peas next weekend so that the harvest is staggered. Of course, if my sister gets wind of this, I won't need a staggered harvest.

I also planted 2 rows of spinach. The spinach benefits from an early planting. Often, because I plant it later in the spring, I am only able to harvest for a short time and then the weather gets too hot and it bolts. These 2 rows should be ready to harvest for baby spinach for salads by the end of April, giving me a month and a half for harvest.

The weather for the beginning of the coming week is rainy and cool, perfect for the newly planted seeds. Hopefully, there will be some dry days in the middle of the week so I can prep another box. But for now, I am happy, I finally got the season started in March!

1 comment:

Retired Knitter said...

So I did get wind of this. ... Even it is July!!!!

So now that it is July(real time), how is the garden doing?