Planting

This morning I noticed my neighbor scraping ice off the windshield of her car before she left. Since it turned out to be a nice spring day, maybe reaching into the high 40s, I found mself anxious to plant some of the more warm weather vegetables - like squashes and beans. Since our last average frost date is May 5th though, I must wait. Instead, I spend my time in the garden pulling weeds, building fences (you can read about that here - Building Fences), and planting cole crops, onions and any seeds that could have been planted last fall but weren't - like poppies and fava beans. These fava beans were from the seed swap I attended last January (you can read about that here - Seed Swap). Given a generous envelop full of seeds, I had enough to plant an entire 3' X 8' raised bed. Notice how not all of the seeds look the same? Some are darker, some smaller. I hope this simply has to do with how dry/mature they were when they were harvested. I certainly hope they will grow and produce well.  

My onions have been planted too. Spacing them about six inches apart in all directions, first I planted these red onion sets.

Then I planted white onions in between the red ones. Thinning them throughout the summer by using some as green onions, enough will be left in the ground to mature as keepers for my winter supply.

Here is Garden Nbr. 01 looking North. There are still several raised beds in the front on the left, and in the back on the right, that are empty. I have reserved those for planting the squash and cucumbers next month.

I planted one of the narrow beds running down the middle of Garden Nbr. 02 with assorted herbs, the other one with bush sweet peas, and the center 3' X 3' bed with hollyhocks. It doesn't look like anything else is planted there yet, but that really is not the case. One of the 3' X 8' beds is full of leeks and garlics, another with the fava beans, and another with the red and white onions. I still have several of those bigger beds empty and that is where I will plant an assortment of beans - some to use as green beans, others for dried. Two of the four small 2' X 2' raised beds have been planted with more seeds from the seed swap - one with a mixture of pink and purple orientale poppies. The poppies are one of my favorite flowers. I do hope they will become established in my garden so I can enjoy them for years to come. In the other 2' X 2' raised bed, I planted Lacinato kale. This is Garden Nbr. 02, looking North.