More Planting!

Last year when I planned the community garden plot it was with the idea in mind that I would be having a baby in early June and I didn't want to have to pick anything in May or June.  Around this time last year I first got access to my plot, stumbled out there and spent about two hours just trying to stake out where my beds were going to go.  (Hey, R wasn't exactly helpful.) This year I've got peas, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, garlic, asparagus, onions (bulbing), potatoes, spinach, and some celeriac already in the ground!

The cabbage you see above was planted last fall and is just starting to form heads now.  If anyone has any good suggestions for sauer kraut now is the time to share!  N and I don't really like cabbage, but I love sauer kraut and I'm very tired of that rubbery, weird-smelling stuff they sell in plastic pouches around here.  (Okay, rubbery and weird-smelling probably sounds like normal sauer kraut to some of you, but it's not a good - yummy!delicious! - rubbery and weird-smelling.)

Front-to-back: celeriac, spinach, and romaine lettuce

The onions, lettuce, and spinach seemed to transplant just fine, and I think I like starting the seeds at home better than out there.  It's a trade-off where I have to juggle more little seedlings around the house for a couple weeks in exchange for not having to make extra trips out there just to water seeds.  Also, the trasplants are so perfectly spaced!  No empty spots or rain puddled plants here!  Next year maybe I'll try planting a few seeds in the ground to see if they catch up to the others.

The broccoli seedlings will recover, I think, but I did not handle them well.  I ran short of pots and left a third of them in the little storage box they were started in, far too close together.  Also, I took them out to the garden a few days before I meant to plant them, to let them get used to the rather windy conditions out there before the shock of transplant.  Then I heard there was going to be a frost, so I decided to leave them tucked under the curtain for a couple extra days.  Then a couple days turned into a week and a half....  The largest leaves seem to have been damaged by either the weight or perhaps the chill of the curtain - you can faintly see the damage in the picture above.  All in all they're a pretty sad little bed right now - a sight you're spared only because I didn't take a picture - but I do think they'll bounce back.

All in all, the garden is starting to really come together.  Today R helped me weed the first of the two tomato beds, which I need to start getting ready for planting in just a couple weeks.  Remarkably, they are the only beds in the garden that aren't at least partially planted.  The pea trellises are up, and dozens of little plants are growing in our spare bedroom - so many I almost think I should be able to hear it!  The garden is really starting to take shape.  Welcome, 2012!