Update For April 12, 2008

Well here it is April 12, 2008 and we are starting to see some progress with the growing but I haven’t been able to do much work on the garden landscape as a whole. I am confident that I will be finished within the next month.

The Early Crop:

Here is the progress that I have made for my early planting. I have laid it out for you so you can see my plan on how I want to be eating fresh vegetables from late spring right into the winter months.

Plants Started From Seedlings:

Here are the plants that I have started from seedlings and an update on how they are doing. This is coming after a thunderstorm and good rain last night.

The Spinach:

The spinach plants are doing much better. They are starting to get their dark green color back. The shock of transplanting them scared me a little. Perhaps I should have let them harden more than 24 hours before transplanting them. All in all, they are doing ok.

The Romaine Lettuce:

I am still worried about these babies. Although they are about 5” high at this point, they still have a good amount of brown leaves around the base of the plants.

Plants Started From Seed:

Here are the plants started from seed sowed directly into the ground. These are hearty plants and start from seed pretty well. They are early crops and I thought I would give them a try.

The Iceberg Lettuce:

I am starting to see a start peaking out through the soil. I planted a row in the box with the romaine lettuce and a row in with the spinach box. I expect to thin each row to about 5 or 6 plants in each area.

The Snow Peas:

I see one small plant just popping up out of the soil. I expect to see lots more coming up within the next few days or sooner. These were planted in 2 rows spaced about 3” apart and the rows spaced about 4” apart.

The bed where they were planted is a strip about 4’ X 1’. I plan on hanging twine from the top of the cage so they can vine straight up. If I can get the full 6’ height out of each plant, this should yield a nice crop.

The Peas:

These are a standard pea that produces a large pea pod. I see nothing popping out of the ground as of yet but like the snow peas I expect to see results very soon. Like the snow peas they are planted on the other side of the strip and planted the same way. All in all I should have a nice pea crop with 2 varieties.

The String Beans:

I decided to plant one variety of a large bean. I don’t see anything as of yet but I expect to see results very soon. Like the peas I planted 2 rows in a strip that measures 10’ X 1’. I will do the same with the twine hanging from the top of the cage.

The next Phase:

I have seedlings started for cherry tomato’s Beef steak tomato’s, bell peppers and a whole variety of herbs. I expect when things are growing nicely, I will be putting things into the empty beds.

Tomorrow I will be giving you my thoughts on how I plan to finish the landscape work. Please come back and help me get through some of the issues I am having with placing the patio block and brick.

See you tomorrow!