First Radishes

french breakfast radishes at 68 days

Spring

The garden is progressing quietly; around the house, daffodils and tulips are in bloom, as are the cherry trees. As I type, I'm taking a break from putting up grapevine wattle edging in the west yard, which is where the flower seedlings germinating on my windowsill are destined to end up. Some bells of ireland and cosmos seeds that have been languishing in a drawer will also be direct-sown in that bed as soon as I'm done weeding and trampling it.


arugula and rhubarb

Our first crops of the year, rhubarb and arugula, are bountiful at the moment. Pretty soon, radishes and winter-sown buttercrunch lettuce will be ready to eat. Four rows of mesclun that were planted in March are starting to form baby leaves-- they look delicious!


lettuce

What's planted: french breakfast radishes, early jalapenos, arugula, genovese basil, italian parsley, onion chives, thyme and lemon thyme, sage, rosemary, lemon cucumbers, autumn beauty sunflowers, mesclun, oregon sugar pod peas, nantes carrots, and san marzano tomatoes.

What needs to be planted: more arugula, dahlias, zinnias, nasturtiums.

Last week, we visited a community garden in Everett, which was a great opportunity to see what other people have growing at this time of year. There were a lot of onions and cole crops, along with beets and swiss chard. Next year, I'd like to try leeks, beets, and swiss chard... but where am I going to find the space?