What's Happening in the Garden

Spring planting is well underway. The potatoes and onions are all in as are the peas.

This year I planted four different types of potatoes. There are two varieties of red potatoes one called All Red which was last year’s favorite. It’s an early red potato that has pink flesh, very pretty and tasty. I also planted some Sangria spuds which are also red but have white flesh and are supposed to have very good flavor too. Purple Majesty is a purple type of potato that is reportedly suppose to retain it’s interesting color better that the blue potatoes that I planted last year. I also am trying out a variety called German Butterball this year which is somewhat like Yukon Gold. Last year was a good year for potatoes. If this year goes O.K. for them I should be able to start digging them at the end of June or the beginning of July. Then I’ll put them in your boxes probably every other week or so until October.

I put in equal parts of yellow, white and red onions. Onions are very tied to length of day, when the days start getting short again in the middle of July the onions sense this and stop growing. Luckily they keep quite well in the ground as long as it doesn’t rain too much so I’m able to pick them as I need them. First I’ll start picking bunches of green onions; these will be in the first four boxes or so. Then I’ll pick scallions which is another type of onion I plant from seed. After the scallions are all out, it should be time to start picking full size onions. Somewhere along the line there we’ll also have leeks and garlic. Really you should get some type of onion thing in pretty much all of your boxes.

I planted a type of shelling pea or snap pea which is the kind that has plump pods that have to be split open. The peas inside are very sweet. Then I also planted the kind of pea where you eat the whole works, called snow peas. It’s hard to say when the peas will be ready, looks like last year we started picking them in early July.

This spring has been unseasonably warm and dry which is making it pretty easy to get everything planted so far. If the weather continues to hold I’ll soon be putting in beets, kale, lettuce, spinach and chard very soon.