The Modern Victory Garden

It was a beautiful sunny day today.   Took advantage of it and spent a fair amount of time out in the garden and greenhouse.   A quick inspection this morning revealed that the spinach I direct seeded on February 14th are up.   I took the grow tunnel cover off of the bed for most of the day to allow the very small plants to enjoy some unfiltered sunshine.   I put it back on around 2:30 pm so that it had time to warm up inside before the sun went down for the day.                

One of the tasks I wanted to get done this weekend is the planting out of the onions.   I have Walla Walla and Candy onion plants I had started back in January that were ready for transplanting.   In addition, my onion sets (red and yellow onions) arrived last week and I wanted to get them into the ground as well.   I prepped the soil and raked it smooth and then used my 4-inch spaced planting jig to mark the planting area.   I got all the onions planted and still had a section about 3 feet by 4 feet left open in the bed that I then planted with a second sowing of spinach (Bloomsdale Savoy).   Here’s a picture of the Walla Walla onions after I transplanted them.        

This same bed has the Elephant garlic and regular garlic (Inchelium Red) growing in it.                                                            

I also wanted to start some more lettuces and the sugar snap peas (Cascadia) this weekend.    However, the bed that the sugar snap peas will go into is still largely in shade much of the day and the soil is quite cool as a result.   Rather than wait, I decided to plant the seeds into cell packs and get them started in the greenhouse.   In a few weeks when they are ready for transplanting, the soil should have warmed up enough in that bed that they will then thrive.   The greenhouse is a great place for plants at the moment as the sun is now high enough on the horizon that it is clearing the tall trees surrounding our property and hitting the greenhouse pretty regularly for a large portion of the day.   The result is a significant increase in temps in the greenhouse.   The plants inside the greenhouse are basking in the sun exposure.   The young pac choi is settling in after transplanting and putting on some growth.         

The mache is almost ready to begin harvesting finally.                              

And, the Chinese cabbages are forming up tall heads.                            

Tomorrow, the weather is not forecasted to be quite as nice but still good.   I am hoping to plant out (under cover) the cabbages (Savoy Ace and Tronchuda), the second round of pac choi (Ching Chiang) and some lettuces (Merlot). 

I hope you are enjoying some time in your garden or among your seedlings this weekend.