Spring in my little corner of heaven has been unusually pleasant. Temperatures have been moderate with a
couple of exceptions and we have been blessed with some sunny weather. Compared to last year, the vegetable
garden is doing quite well. We have been enjoying lettuce that overwintered in the cold frame. It is a combination of mescluns; All American Mix from Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Provencal Mix from
The Cook’s Garden. These two varieties have provided us with a mix of mild and tangy. We have become
big fans of tangy greens. Our lettuce transplants are finally happy in their
new home. Spinach and mesclun direct seeded in the lettuce patch are
up. This 4×4 patch will give us plenty of greens for over a month. In addition, I transplanted lettuce seedlings to another part of the garden
that will give us an additional two weeks. This will keep going until Thanksgiving. In about two weeks we won’t need to purchase greens
for eight months.
We’ve got kale seedlings in the ground, broccoli seedlings and cabbage seedling almost ready to transplant.
We received leek plants and shallots which are now in the ground. Check out the garlic patch in the photo
below. We have been building up the number of cloves planted from the original 35 we received when we
bought seed garlic 3 years ago to the 60 we planted in October. The goal is to plant enough so that we never have to buy garlic again. My wife Catherine loves the garlic we grow in garden. She likes the ease of peeling, the moist firmness of the cloves and the mild, fresh taste. This is one vegetable well worth growing.
May we have a drum roll please? The really big
announcement is that asparagus season has begun.
For us, this is bigger than Easter. We will enjoy this
wonderful vegetable for about two months. I always
cook a nice dinner on Mother’s Day and it always features our own fresh picked asparagus. Catherine found a recipe for pasta with asparagus, fresh peas and
progiuto. Can’t wait. Speaking of peas, ours are up and doing very well. They have company. We discovered fava beans and now grow them with our peas. They should be ready to eat about
the 4th of July.
I have planted carrot seeds and beet seeds but they are not up yet.
Radishes planted three weeks ago are looking good and starting to
bulb up. Just received 3 batches of onion plants. With help from
Catherine I will plant those tomorrow after work.
Potatoes have been in the ground almost two weeks but not yet emerged. We like fingerling potatoes and have planted a varitey
called “French Fingerlings”. They have beige skin and pinkish flesh. I’ll let you know how they taste sometime in July.
I could go on and on, but need to sign off for now. If you have any
questions or comments please contact me at gcgarnache@gmail.com.
All the best,
Greg
