Journaling: Spring Garden 2007

The planting urge was triggered in gardeners - including this one - too soon this year. As I have written: The past year (2006) autumn was too warm, then so were our following winter and spring (2007). That false start caused everything to get out of kilter. Did it ever!

Too early to plant tomatoes, my sensible voice told me. But, back there staring at me, every time I looked out the kitchen's back window, was that lovely bare circle of earth just waiting for me to do something with it. It was the circle of bare planting area that wraps around the fence-wire circle that creates the Japanese Tomato Ring. There it was, winking and teasing and temping me!

OK, would it, could it, work and be successful to plant an early season, cool weather something and have it harvested and gone by time to plant tomatoes?! Hmmm! I couldn't resist. This would be another of my so-called "experiments".

Whether it was time or not, spring had sprung in this gardener's heart! I took the first opportunity to visit my favorite seed store. As I browsed, a plan started forming in my mind. How well it worked, or not, I will let you know later in future posts.

First to plant next to the fence wire, where they could climb, would be English peas. Green English peas need cool weather, as opposed to our numerous varieties of brown peas which my family grew several summers, inter-planted with corn for the cows.

My reasoning was: The cool weather crop of green peas would come in and be gone by the time the tomato plants began to get some size, at which time, I would pull the pea vines and toss them into the middle of the circle, thereby leaving room for the tomato plants to finish their growth with plenty of room.

I had never grown English peas. My parents did, once, when I was about six years old. I still remember the creamed peas, the creamed new potatoes, and the English pea salads with bits of cheese and a touch of onion. Delicious foods that came from my parents' first and only "real" garden. Then my father suffered ill health for a few years. Later, some food plants were grown out in the fields along with crops for the cows and mules.

Oh, and next after the peas, maybe I could put a circle of radishes; oh, and maybe some scallions (green onions) inter-planted with them. If I did that, maybe the radishes would be ready to pull soon and that would leave room for the onions to grow more if we don't use all of them right away. Yes, I'll try that! Oh, and don't forget the lettuce, we must have leaf lettuce to grow before the weather gets too warm.

We had not grown lettuce since we moved to this property. At our previous house, Local Son built for me a round bed of three tiers using the typical aluminum edging often seen for constructing strawberry beds. At first I did grow strawberries, then once disease invaded the bed, I stopped doing strawberries; and having that nice soft bed mix lying fallow, I decided to grow leaf lettuce.

Local Son said the bed needed to be stronger and better, so he used pieces of firewood, placed on end, to create the rings. That made it deeper and more stable. So for a few years that is where I grew Simpson's Black Seeded, Bib, and Butter Crunch leaf lettuces. Radishes were inter-planted with them, those were the large round red ones called Crimson Giant. If grown rapidly with plenty of moisture and nutrients, they were mild, juicy, and crunchy. In the center ring (smallest and deepest of the three rings) were planted seeds for a short variety of carrot. I forget its name, something like Nantes Half Long.

Over the years that little round bed produced an unbelievable amount of lettuce for weeks and weeks of wonderful salads. The more I thinned the more the rest grew. That was the secret - keep thinning and harvesting.

Over the years I had noticed there usually is a pleasant Sunday in March and that was when I would go out in the afternoon and plant the lettuce and radishes. Then almost immediately, the weather would turn bad for weeks and weeks while wintertime played itself out. That didn't disturb those cool weather plants at all.

But, this year I didn't get that done at the right time. Because I was busy recuperating from all those viruses I entertained throughout February and into March (Yuk!), I did not start early enough, and, that threw everything off time-wise.

OK, this time I don't have a lot of space for lettuce; I will go with the Simpson's. That would be pretty as a ruffly edging around the circle. I selected a packet of Simpson's, a packet of French Breakfast radishes (long tapering, red and white - something new to try), but the smallest bag of English (green) peas I could find was still too many. I had only maybe 15 linear feet of a strip about 10 inches wide.

I asked for assistance. The gentleman showed me another smaller sized bag (still too many for my small space, but it had to do). I asked him about onion sets for the scallions, he scooped up some and bagged them. Then I remembered potatoes!

Me: "How many potato plants could I grow in an old metal garbage can that has a rusted out bottom?"

He looked surprised, smiled and answered, "Probably two or three. Do you want the red skinned or the white ones?"

Me: "Red, please."

He said, "Here take three small whole potatoes. What else you want?"

So, I had it all together: potatoes, onions, peas, lettuce, and radishes. Feeling pleased, I said, "That's it. This is my spring garden!" He smiled.

Now, you have to understand that this is the same man, a little older than myself, who for decades had used a big tiller and created huge gardens with harvests put away for the winter by canning and freezing.

Yes, he smiled at my fifteen feet by ten inches "spring garden".

Addendum:
Being blessed with photographers in my family who provide me with photos for you, I will attempt to organize some in an effort to show progression.

Here in the first one you can see the tiny baby plants, the first leaves (cotyledons) of some and the little whips of green onion tops.

The inner ring of peas is recognizable by now. Next is the ring of radishes and onions inter-planted. The outer plants of pale green are the Simpson's Black Seeded leaf lettuce.