BEGIN PLANTING COOL WEATHER CROPS

Greetings everyone.  WOW, I do think that spring is here!  Still crisp and cool in the morning.  My spinach I planted on April 6th is up and about 2 inches tall.  Fresh spinach in about 3-4 weeks.  Excited to have fresh produce.

So, today we planted the potatoes, big red's, more than enough for my son and I but will share with the Food shelves when harvested.  Dug a trench about 6 inches deep added compost and covered.  Also I use container gardening for most of my herbs as I can keep them on my front step and pick them whenever I need flavors for cooking.  Just a short way to go and enough shade that they get both sun and shade.  Cilantro, Rainbow Rhubarb Chard planted in containers also and on my front step. 

In my 4 by 4 feet raised beds west of the garden fence, arugula and beets planted because they enjoy cool weather.  It will be the first planting of beets, which are mouth watering to us....we love eating and pickling them.  Beets can be planted every few weeks to keep beets on our plates.

Today, my big open half of my garden where potatoes were planted along the fence, we "broadcast" a green manure/cover crop of field peas, hairy vetch and clover, raked them in slightly and then put the overhead sprinkler on that part of the garden.  This will make great organic material for the soil and the peas and clover are high in nitrogen, which most plants need.  I plan on planting my tomatoes, peppers in this area this year.  It has been about 3 years since I planted them in this area.  Crop rotation is good to do for all vegetables, especially tomatoes as my soil holds the fungus responsible for blight.  It just seems that it is impossible to get rid of it, but still do let the soil rest.  Lets see what happens this year.

So let the planting begin.  I suggest that you do your research and identify what cool weather plants you can put in your garden at this time.  I will begin to plant broccoli cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower,, kale, romaine, onion sets, parsley, radish, turnips over this coming weekend....last of April.  All tolerate and some prefer cool weather.  I always keep in mind that we can have a frost.



A great resource for planting dates, when to start seeds, planting distances, dept of seeds and more is available at:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/vegetables/planting-the-vegetable-garden/

Happy Planting!!!

TIPS FOR PREPARING THE SOIL FOR SPRING PLANTING

Getting the soil ready during the window of opportunity April 6-16 before it got cold and had a little snow.  It is important to prepare the soil by putting compost of some sort on the soil, about one inch, either fall or spring.  I usually prefer spring so it is fresh.  I have a large compost pile of cow/horse and left over plant parts composted from last year.  You can see me shoveling this into the wheel barrel and then putting on top of my raised bed gardens where I planted winter rye last fall for good organic material available for spring.  You will see my two dogs roaming around and my precious Saddie in the bed exploring.  She is a bundle of energy.















Below you will see my larger sandy soil with rye growth from
the fall, which has been tilled in.  I will not be putting
    compost on the top soil this year as this year when it
    warms up a bit I will be planting a spring cover crop or what is
    called green manure of field peas, hairy vetch and clover to
    enrich the soil with nitrogen and also organic material.  Because
    my soil is so sandy, it always needs amendments.

 To the right you will see further raised bed gardens on the west side of my south fenced in raised bed gardens.  Ready for planting a variety of greens soon hopefully so that I can do succession planting...when one batch so to speak is done then plant another batch of fresh greens for eating and juicing!!!  Happy happy about that.

My raised bed garden in the south side of the main gardens, Rye and compost tilled in.  Will keep the garden beds watered if no rain to provide moisture for the microorganisms to continue breaking down the organic matter from the compost pile providing a slow release of soil nutrition.