March 27, 2017 – I started planting out in the garden today – the ground is warm enough to sit on, therefore, it is really warm enough to plant in.

          We had a deep soaking rain last night.  

Satellite Dish Garden Status:

          Believe it or not – the red and green romaine lettuce transplants I put in a few weeks back walked through the 21 and 23 degree weather in an open topped cold frame.  I am truly amazed.  They sure looked perked up and beautiful after the deep soaking rain.  They are actually large enough that I could snip some leaves for a salad and leave the plants to continue on.

The spring onion sets which surround the cold frame are about 3 to 4 inches tall.  The double row of Sweet Peas [flowers] is up about ½ inch in that garden.  They are taking their “sweet time”.  I have never been successful growing sweet pea flowers here in the South – so this is again a valiant try after many years of zilch.

          The thyme and the mint wintered over just fine and I have a wonder crop of self-seeding Claytonia – called miner’s lettuce which is ready for the picking.  Photos below if you are not familiar with this spring green that needs absolutely NO care during the winter and self-seeds readily [more than you want it to so you have to be careful when it starts to bloom and set seed.]  I had never experienced it until I read Eliot Coleman’s book about the back side of the calendar planting.

          I fluffed up the soil in a 5 foot wide by 5 foot patch in the middle of the Dish Garden that was vacant and waiting on various spring crops.  I divided it in half – I can only reach a little over 2 ¼ feet into the bed from both sides so I left a six inch strip in the middle where I seeded with cosmos which will be “long term”.

          On the lawn side I put in a variety of seed.   Short little 2 ¼ foot rows of a couple varieties of arugula, three types of white turnips, two types of red lettuce, and a loose leaf lettuce.    On the house side I placed the wire racks that come from the inside of a small standing greenhouse.  They serve two purposes.  They keep critters away while my seeds sprout and they are perfect for spacing.

          The green racks have 1 inch by 1 inch spacing and I set those on top of loosen soil that has been raked smooth.  I take a chop stick and make a small indentation in the center of each square and then go back and drop a single seed into the hole.  I come back and nudge the side of the hole for soil to cover them.  I have done this for several years and I get great stands of radishes and beets due to the spacing.  I don’t want to “thin” – I’d rather take the time to space my seed than to go back and destroy most of the plants with my poor thinning techniques.  I leave the racks in place until I get the second set of leaves and then gently coax the racks off for plant spacing somewhere else.

          I put in spinach, [may be too late because of heat], two types of beets and then a row of Cilantro.  The next rack I dedicated to Rover radish which I have had much luck with and a new one, Rivoli, which is supposed to be new and extra easy – we will see.  Both radish seed varities are from Vermont Seed.   Then the next 3 rows I put in one each of three types of water cress, Cresso, Upland and then one simply called “watercress” with no variety designation.   The last row is Oak Leaf Lettuce.  That is my favorite along with red lettuce.

When I had finished planting, I lifted the racks off, tamped the seed bed down with the back of a metal rake and then watered it in with my Haws watering can.  I put the racks back on to keep those critters off, especially feral cats.   I have one more rack covering unplanted soil waiting for the first set of radishes to be up 2 weeks, then I will plant that rack area with more radishes and maybe some dill or chives.   We will see once I look through my seed box and my master plan.

There is a lot of bending and stretching but I love the way it feels; you feel alive as you are optimistically planting tiny seeds. The soil is warm to the touch and the sun is warming your back as you carefully open packets and poke holes and drop seeds into the inviting soil.  These are rites of spring I look forward to every year.

And, God blessed us with another drenching rain tonight.