Second planting of the season
Odd weather has us second-guessing the very seasons, but with a couple weeks now of warm weather and the first spring rains, it seemed safe to plant the batch of seeds labeled as early, but not frost-hardy.
In the middle bed, closest to the house, on the driveway side, we planted a row of “White Lisbon” scallions/bunching onions (Allium cepa)—calçotes all around! I can’t wait. In the middle of that section, a row of “White Vienna” kohlrabi (Cavola rapa)—tip of the hat to Uncle Bob’s Oscoda garden— and a row of “Italian Red of Florence” bunching onions (Allium cepa).
In the other half of the bed, we planted four rows, the two closer to the house are “Purple Top White Globe” turnips ( Brassica rapa) and the two rows closer to the street are “French Breakfast” radishes (Raphanus satious).
Update on the first planting
And in the good-news camp, the straw mulch on the bed where we did our first planting has not defeated germination—it seems that everything is starting to come up, although the spinach might be a bit spindly. This time around, we’ve opted not to mulch until after the plants are up, as the straw seems like it might hinder germination of the seeds that I want to sprout. I’m not sure how this is usually done, though I did find a decent article on vegetable garden mulch types on the Virginia Cooperative Extension site (random search result, but helpful).
