first garden planting

Well, the ground has finally warmed up enough to do some early spring planting.  I´ve decided to experiment with extending the garden season beyond summer to include spring and fall, Eliot Coleman style.  Not only will this increase the amount of the year that I´m able to be gardening, but there are also lots of plants that prefer the cooler temperatures and can be grown in the garden before the summer crops can be planted or get too large.  This also increases the number of different types of vegetables I can grow.

For my first spring crop, I´ve decided to try Champion radishes, Bloomsdale spinach, and Sugar Pod snow peas.  These vegetables are all supposed to thrive in cooler temperatures and have a relatively short number of days until maturity.  Again, I ordered all the seeds from Seeds of Change.  I like they way they organize the information about the seeds there.  I feel it´s easy to compare different varieties of seeds and select those that have the best chance of growing and producing high yields in a cooler climate with a shorter typical growing season. 

The three varieties of vegetables I´ve chosen all can supposedly be planted as soon as the ground can be worked.   I first turned over the soil in the garden a few weeks ago, and then broke up the ground more finely last weekend.  Sunday afternoon, with the temperature in the mid-50s, I decided to plant my seeds.

Bloomsdale spinach:

Sugar Pod Snow Pea:

 Champion Radish:

We still have occasional night temperatures in the 20s, so I´ve decided to use a type of season extender for the plants to help them germinate and protect them from frost.  There´re just plastic bins that I was using to collect rain last summer, but I think they´ll work alright for now.

The Champion radish is supposed to be able to germinate at temperatures as low as 45F, and in just three to six days, so I´m expecting to see it sprout first.  The spinach and snow peas both can germinate at 50F, in six to twelve and three to eight days, respectively.  The temperature is supposed to get up into the 80s (!!) this Friday, which should really help speed along the germination.