First Planting of the Year

We’ve had a lot of warm weather recently, which is encouraging the trees and bushes to start budding out. I hate to see that, as it’s far too early, and inevitably we’ll be having cold weather yet. Sunday I planted one of my raised veggie beds with peas and a row of lettuce. It’s early, yes, but I do this about every year, and I have never yet lost these early crops. They’re pretty hardy plants, plus if a really nasty cold spell comes in, I cover the bed. Since my raised beds are edged with concrete blocks, I fit low hoops of flexible PVC pipes over the bed, then cover it with a sheet of heavy clear plastic held down with bricks around the edges.

This coming weekend I plan to plant another bed with sugar snap peas, lettuce and a few radishes. I don’t care for radishes myself, but my neighbor does, and my bunnies sure do like the leaves.

Ongoing Winter Garden Work

Over the winter, I look forward to any moderately pleasant day on the weekend, so that I can get out and get a bit more done in the garden. I spent so much time in the fall scraping and painting on the garage that a lot of tasks to prepare the garden for the winter didn't get done. I still need to cut back the asparagus plants, and trim and clean out the iris bed.

I've begun getting out the things to start seeds indoors. Some things should be started 10 weeks before last frost date, which is mid-April here. I like to get plants started far enough ahead to put them out as soon as weather permits. Growing season is all too short!