Early Spring Planting

Spring planting is an actual thing where I live. It feels cruel given the arctic chill blanketing most of the rest of the country, but all I can say is, you get summer. We don't.

Getting money's worth out of new spring hat and knee socks from Target

Here during one of a recent string of 70-ish degree days, we planted radishes, lettuce, basil, cilantro, sugar snap peas and broccoli rabe. The kids put in carrots and flowers (ugh). This was all thanks to my husband, who spent a good chunk of time last weekend dealing with the weeds that had crept, then galloped, into the vegetable patch.

Over the winter, about every two weeks I planted lettuce, b. rabe, and a few other things that are supposed to be fine in cool weather. The rabe mysteriously sprouted very tall flowers before eking out a few heads (not edible). I have a few lettuce heads doing fine. That's about it - it has not been a four-season garden this year. In addition to gardener laziness, we did have a crazy rainy December, which definitely washed away a few sowings, and then basically dry for January and February.

"Hmm... where can I randomly scatter more seeds?"

The kids were pleased to get out there today and seemed to forget the squabbling that has dominated this weeklong school break. They even shared seeds. My son had a baggie of harvested zinnia seeds from his Zinnia on Steroids that was the shining star of his garden last year. I think between the two kids, they sprinkled them all on a one-foot square area. Should be showy in a couple months!

Four Season Gardening

Every climate is different of course, and one benefit of my cooler, foggier one is that at least theoretically, I can grow lettuce from seed year-round. I put in some Salad Bowl and Winter seeds today in a pot, placed right next to where an earlier round of Salad Bowl did great and is just now winding down. Meanwhile, I had to discard the transplanted radishes that were started indoors from seed (so the kids could watch them). I think I waited too long to transplant them and they got irredeemably overgrown. I could probably start more radish seeds but... eh. Nobody really likes them so there's not a warm feeling of success when they do well and no hard feelings when they fail. I'd rather have a bit more emotion at stake in my dirt.

Starting Seeds Indoors

The indoors lineup. Batting first - radishes.

The kindergartener's teacher planted radishes, watermelon, and peas inside the classroom, in a clear fronted planter so the kids can watch the roots grow. They are loving it, and loving reporting on the seeds' progress to anyone who will listen who unwarily steps into the classroom. So I decided to do the same activity at home.

We planted radishes in one plastic cup, and parsley in the other on March 30. The radishes are already sprouting! Magic, I tell you. We also have a strawberry plant indoors, waiting for a dry enough spell to transplant, and my indoors basil which is looking good although still small. A great complementary activity would be journaling the pots' progress, but I didn't think of that in time! There's always next time (gardening motto #345).

Unseasonability

... And now after torrential rains, it's about 65 degrees. In the garden, the weeds made good use of the rains, so I sicced some child labor on that. We also harvested some adorable lil' radishes. I'll need a bunch of cilantro later for aloo gobi dinner and it will be nice not to get soaked picking it.

Viva false spring!

Winter Gardening

Positioning the marker just so in the pot

After my last post, I fully expected to stay indoors for a couple months. Then my gaze fell on my in-box, and on the radish seeds someone gave my daughter for her November birthday. "Come on kids!" I shouted. "Let's go plant these radishes real quick!"

"Okay!" responded my 5 year old son enthusastically. "And carrots too! They're a winter crop!"

Well. Can't argue with his garden savvy or his gusto, so the three of us spent an hour in the vegetable garden this afternoon. It was in the low 60s, I'd say, a welcome respite from the recent "bitter" (by Bay Area standards) cold. We planted radishes in a pot, and in the ground cilantro, mesclun, beets, and carrots, all from seed. I pulled out my sad, sad plants formerly known as tomatoes, clicked my tongue over my peas, and weeded. Grr. Also tried to redirect some sneaky bamboo, grr x 1000.

Any excuse to practice those kindergarten writing skills

The kids spent their time messing around with the seed packets and decorating plant markers (craft sticks). That was actually a good use of their time, as opposed to having them sow the actual seeds with me, which is a great way to have your lettuce row sprout a big ol' cilantro in the middle. It will be handy to have a visual marker of what went where, since my memory is obviously deteriorating rapidly.

I think the Vitamin D did us all good. Whether we'll reap anything more tangible, time will tell.

Of COURSE you need to bring out about 50 craft sticks to choose from. All the markers too. You never know what you'll need.