Outside

More Garden Spinach

Yes, I know, this looks very much like my spinach post from earlier this month, but I'm just so very excited about being able to grow - and harvest - spinach this year!

This time I've pulled some Plum Purple Radishes, which are quite pretty. We'll have salad the next two nights. Tonight I'll serve it with radishes, goat cheese crumbles and maybe some cashews. Tomorrow I'll top it with some beautiful strawberry slices, maybe some avocado, chive flowers and a raspberry vinaigrette.

What a great time of year.

First Harvest 2009 - Spinach and Radishes

Here it is, the first harvest from the garden in 2009 - Bloomsbury spinach and Cherry Belle radishes. I think I'll serve a simple spinach salad - radishes, chives, raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Mmmmm.

Greens Looking Good!

The greens bed is looking particularly good this year.

On the right on the top and bottom are radishes. Also on the right are two lettuces - Black Seeded Simpson and Merlot. Both are cut-and-come-again varieties, so I can snip what I need and more will grow from the root. They should last until about the 4th of July, depending on how hot it gets.

What I'm most excited about, though, is the spinach, in two rows on the left. I've planted spinach for the past five years or so, and this will be the first year I'll harvest anything significant before it bolts.

Why is the spinach doing so well this year? I wish I could say it's because of something I've done, but I doubt it. The only thing I did differently this year was plant the seed thickly in the rows. All my books say to plant spinach 2" apart, but this year I had old seed and was running out of time, so I made two 1/2" furrows and put in lots of seed.

I think, though, the main reason the spinach is doing well this year is because it's been a cool spring. Here in Minnesota, we can go from frozen ground to temperatures in the 80's in about a month - not the best growing weather for spinach. This year, though, the temperatures have stayed moderate, in the 60's and 70's, so the spinach is able to grow slowly.

The first salad should be this weekend. I'm looking forward to it!

First Spring Planting, 2009

Planted today:

Sugar Snap Peas
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
Merlot Lettuce
Bloomsbury Spinach

First Harvest

I harvested the first vegetables of the season on
Wednesday (6/18). I made a salad with the baby lettuce greens, snap peas and chives. I used the tarragon to make a sauce for pan grilled chicken breast. It was a wonderful dinner.

I'm wondering, though, why the lettuce is growing so slowly this year? I planted in early spring, and until this week we've had cooler than average weather - low 70's, mostly. I thought we'd be swimming in lettuce, but instead I just thinned it for the first time this week. Hmmmm, strange.

First Planting 2008

I was finally able to get into the garden this weekend. On Sunday, Spouse spent some quality time with the leaf blower, while I got going with the vegetable garden. The weather was beautiful - mid-70's and sunny.

Here's the upper bed after a few hours of work. I did some weeding, then spread compost over the two long beds and the triangular bed in the back. I strung the trellis with twine, so it's ready for climbing snap peas (I'm using bamboo teepees for pole beans this year.)

Once that was done, I planted Sugar Snap Peas under the trellis, Space Spinach* next to the trellised peas, Sugar Ann Snap Peas in half the far long bed, and radishes (Cherry Belle* and Purple Plum*) and lettuce (Merlot and Black Seeded Simpson) in the far triangular bed.

Meanwhile, in the lower garden, nothing much got done from a gardening perspective (although Spouse blew out all the leaves). However, some plants are starting to come up. Below you'll see the chives and the garden oregano. The season has begun!

* I got the seed for Space Spinach, Cherry Belle Radish and Purple Plum Radish from Pinetree Garden Seeds, on the web at www.superseeds.com. Right now I can't connect to their website so can't provide links.