Spring Veggies In!

I saw online that today's weather was supposed to be gorgeous, so yesterday the kids and I stopped by SYG, our favorite (maybe only?) local nursery and bought onion sets, seed potatoes, and some new carrot, pea, and beet seeds. Oh, and some violas and pansies, just because.

The morning didn't start off very promising, but I was determined to get this done, and it wasn't raining, so we put on some layers and went for it. So glad I did! 

It was hardly windy at all and continued to warm up through the day, as promised.

As a result, middle terrace is completely planted with our spring veggies!

Cross that off the "to do before baby" list!

 On the left: peas

I've got the stakes up, as you can see. I still need to add twine or netting for a trellis.

I've got netting somewhere, I just didn't take the time to find it today. Planting was first priority!

I was going to do an "L" shape for the trellis, but with the curve of the bed, the triangle made more sense. So there are actually peas planted on all 3 sides, and in the middle of the triangle.

Here's what I put in:

"Super Snappy" (seed 3-4 yrs old): 65 days

"Little Marvel Pea" (seed purchased yesterday): 62 days

--bushy vine w/ heavy pod set

--shelling

"Sugar Daddy" (seed 3-4 yrs old): 74 days

--resistant to powdery mildew and pea leaf roll virus

Not sure what percentage of the older seed will germinate. If I've got some big bare spots, I've got more I can put in--plus I found a few more seed packets in my gardening bag from last year that didn't make it back to the official seed box. Oops!

Middle: potatoes

So, I did the square foot gardening method (digging a hole), rather than the make a hill method. Just because that's what I'm more familiar with. I think this middle terrace is the biggest; even so, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I could fit in. I bought 5 1/2 lbs of seeds potatoes and it worked out just right for the 12 holes. The kids were helping me pick them out, and so we ended up with a couple of surprises: a red variety, and a purple variety that I didn't get the names of. 

Going from left to right, vertical rows: 

Row 1: Yukon Gold

Row 2: Yukon Gold

Row 3: top 2 russet, bottom (closest to blocks) a red variety

Row 4: top 2 russet, bottom a purple variety

Right side: onions

Again, I was surprised at how many onions fit into this space. I bought 2 bags that each had 80 sets in them, and when I got home I thought I would have WAY too many. I used up all but 1/2 of one bag.

So the left side, close to the potatoes: 'White Ebenezer'--good for cooking (it says)

right side, closer to the walkway: 'Yellow Stuttgarter'--good for slicing and storage

I've never heard of either variety. I should have probably grabbed some 'Walla Walla Sweet', but oh well. Maybe next year. We'll see how these do, and how we like them. We'll have plenty!

Along the front of the whole bed I planted 2 rows of carrots.

The left side of the bed is 'Scarlet Nantes': 65 days, sprouts in 7-21 days, 6" bright orange carrots

Right side is 'Tendersweet': 70 days, sprouts in 15-25 days, up to 10" carrots 

I'll have a lot of thinning to do on the carrots, as I had my little helpers sprinkling seeds along with me.

I did not end up planting any beets. I was going to put them by the peas, but with the change in trellis shape, didn't have the room. I'm sure there will be room on one of the other levels if I want to put some in later. I'm not going to worry about it for now, though.

We didn't even water them, since it's supposed to rain the rest of the week.

Most importantly, it's DONE! It can rain for the next 2 weeks if it wants to!

I'm hoping that by the time we need to plant the warm weather stuff, I'll be recovered enough to get out and do that, too. Baby should be a little over a month old by that point, so if I can fit it in between feedings and naps, we'll be good to go.