Saturday, April 23, 2011
April Work Day: Recap
On Friday afternoon, we enjoyed great weather for the garden work day. Ann, Andrea, the Coffman family, and Sarah R. spent a few hours digging and planting.
Harvesting:
Now is the time to pick lettuce and kale; before too long these overwintered plants will all bolt in the spring heat. The cilantro is flowering, and the cilantro seed (aka coriander) will be ready in a few weeks. Spring-planted radishes and arugula are coming in now: pick a couple of radishes or a few arugula leaves for your salad. Keep picking broccoli shoots, but watch out for the loopers: immerse the broccoli in boiling water for a few minutes and any of these little worms will float to the surface.
The overwintered carrots have been thinned, so now we can wait a few more weeks for bigger roots to form on the remaining plants. As for the onions and garlic... we wait. We wait.
Composting:
Some overwintered plants needed to be pulled: the Odle and Coffman kids pulled and composted the red romaine lettuce in the lower level, and Ann saved seed stalks from the mizuna before adding the rest to the compost pile.We checked out the compost in the tumbler, and it was quite warm... a few turns each day will turn it into "black gold" very soon.
Herb Garden:
Andrea and Sara organized the space dedicated for the herb garden: they arranged the perennial herbs, including rosemary, oregano, lemon balm, and thyme. Mint was planted in buried pots, to check its spread - these pots will be lifted out of the ground at the end of the summer. Space was reserved for parsley, echinacea, and hot peppers; we'll plant these in mid-May.
Seed Starting & Potting up:
Ellie and Chloe joined me to prepare flats for watermelon and cucumber seeds. We had a regular assembly line going: punching holes in cups, filling them with the "special dirt" (i.e. the dirt that you're not allowed to use to make mud pies) and planting seeds. Finally, we finished the afternoon with an all-call potting sprint. I think we potted up nearly all of the Orange Bell peppers in less than five minutes! Sarah R. took some more pepper seedlings home to finish the process on her back porch.
- Abbie
Harvesting:
Now is the time to pick lettuce and kale; before too long these overwintered plants will all bolt in the spring heat. The cilantro is flowering, and the cilantro seed (aka coriander) will be ready in a few weeks. Spring-planted radishes and arugula are coming in now: pick a couple of radishes or a few arugula leaves for your salad. Keep picking broccoli shoots, but watch out for the loopers: immerse the broccoli in boiling water for a few minutes and any of these little worms will float to the surface.
The overwintered carrots have been thinned, so now we can wait a few more weeks for bigger roots to form on the remaining plants. As for the onions and garlic... we wait. We wait.
Composting:
Some overwintered plants needed to be pulled: the Odle and Coffman kids pulled and composted the red romaine lettuce in the lower level, and Ann saved seed stalks from the mizuna before adding the rest to the compost pile.We checked out the compost in the tumbler, and it was quite warm... a few turns each day will turn it into "black gold" very soon.
Herb Garden:
Andrea and Sara organized the space dedicated for the herb garden: they arranged the perennial herbs, including rosemary, oregano, lemon balm, and thyme. Mint was planted in buried pots, to check its spread - these pots will be lifted out of the ground at the end of the summer. Space was reserved for parsley, echinacea, and hot peppers; we'll plant these in mid-May.
Seed Starting & Potting up:
Ellie and Chloe joined me to prepare flats for watermelon and cucumber seeds. We had a regular assembly line going: punching holes in cups, filling them with the "special dirt" (i.e. the dirt that you're not allowed to use to make mud pies) and planting seeds. Finally, we finished the afternoon with an all-call potting sprint. I think we potted up nearly all of the Orange Bell peppers in less than five minutes! Sarah R. took some more pepper seedlings home to finish the process on her back porch.
- Abbie
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)