I mixed things up a bit with my gardening plans this year. Normally I use my raised beds for my tomatoes, but I’m never quite satisfied with doing the same thing over and over and over in my gardens. I like to experiment and change things up. So this year I decided to start my cold crops in one of my raised beds.
In previous years I had to wait for the ground in the big garden to dry out enough for Joel to disk it. Then I had to wait for Isaac to rototill it. This isn’t such a big deal, but in spring it seems like the rains always keep the ground too wet to plant. Plus this year with our 80+ inches of snow the ground was pretty wet, by the time it all melted. I have always struggled in the past with getting my cold crops in early.
Not this year!
This year I was able to plant on Easter weekend. I had started my kale indoors and it was more than ready to go out. So I stuck that in around the edges of the bed, built three stick teepees for my peas, and then filled in the rest of the space with lettuces, radishes, carrots, and swiss chard.
And Voila!
It has been a super happy spot and I didn’t require anybody’s help to boot.
Now I am gathering abundant amounts of Kale and radishes! This is my first year growing kale and I didn’t know what to expect taste wise, but it is so good!
I have been slicing the kale up in strips( just like you would cabbage for coleslaw, removing the tough center ribs) and using it as the main green for our salads. All of us like it, which makes me happy, happy since it is SO good for us.
Currently I have so much kale that I am going to dehydrate some to make kale powder, which I can than use all through the winter to add nutritional boosts to my sauces, meatballs, lasagnas, smoothies, etc.
My oakleaf and romaine lettuce are just starting to get big enough to pick, and I am super happy to add that to our salads.
The other item going crazy in my garden is my oregano. It is prolific! Last year I took out a big portion of my main flower bed so that I could make an herb/kitchen garden. This year I had Isaac dig out more of my flowers so that I could expand the herb garden. My oregano is on its third year and doing super. I keep cutting it back and drying it. I have already harvested two huge bowls full, so far. I’m pretty sure this is going to end up as Christmas presents for all my sisters this year!
Little Sis and I have been super excited with all our green stuff. Each day we go out to take a progress report. Then we sample a bit here and a bit there. We’re pretty much just like Peter Rabbit!
Really beautiful!! We are trying our hand at a pallet garden. We have a tiny backyard and this is working for us so far! I really enjoy the taste of Kale. Especially making Kale chips...yum!!
ReplyDeleteLove these kind of posts...gardening is a love language of mine... ;o)
ReplyDeleteSo I have some questions for you...
But first...80 inches of snow! Wow.
Okay. When you planted the greens...did you just scatter your radish and lettuce and such? Or, did you make little rows?
And for the weeding? How do you weed around all of those little lettuce starts? or, do you not have weeds and if not...why? I'm drowning in weeds around my lettuce, radishes, and carrots.
The kale...last year was my first with it and chard which if you love the kale...you'll love the chard. It's so mild and wonderful!
The oregano...after you have dried and dried...try making an infusion with your oregano. Infusing olive oil gives you the most amazing herbal remedy!
We love oil of oregano tinctures.
The raised bed and teepees are beautiful! Love all of that goodness and I'm going to try this next year. I miss out on the early crops because of the waiting on the tilling and then it's so hot all of a sudden.
xo
We had a crazy amount of snow from November through February. From Late December on we had snow on the ground until it melted this spring. It was so deep that the deer and rabbits ate EVERYTHING. We have chicken wire around our young trees and fruits. The snow was so deep that it up them at the top of the wire and so they ate all my stuff. The deer stripped our big pine tree about 5 feet off of the ground.
DeleteAs for the lettuce and radishes I just scattered. I didn't do rows. I wanted everything interspersed. I did research on what plants were good companions and what depth they needed. I put the ones with similar planting depths together pulled back the top layer of dirt sprinkled the seed on then very carefully covered them.
As for the weeds.... my raised beds do not have an excess of weeds. They are much better than my big garden. Before I planted I took my rake and worked up the soil and pulled any weeds I had. I think part of the bonus to my raised beds is that when we made them we used peat moss and rabbit poo. That was it. It is a super light soil with no compacting so it is easy to pull out the weeds. Now I have the bed so full that the weeds don't even have a chance!
I just pinned on how to make tinctures and I am planning on making some oregano on my next picking!
I am so happy this year with my cold crops they have done 100% better since I got them in so early. We are going to be eating a lot of salad and I am super happy about that!
SOOO wonderful! What a blessing to have all that produce just waiting to be picked and added to your dinner table. Hugs to you! Camille XO
ReplyDeleteI love your updates, your words, your heart and your pictures. What a beautiful blessing this is to read!
ReplyDeleteYour raised bed looks so beautiful! I think my kale is stunted. It's not very big and hasn't changed much over the past couple weeks. I might just have to pick what we have a eat it now. Can I borrow your green thumb? :)
ReplyDelete