Planting the Onions & Garlic
We started by preparing the soil. We dug about 2" deep and took out all of the rocks. (The advice we received is that little rocks are OK and big rocks should be removed... but since the little rocks make it harder to dig in our soil, I removed those too.) Our soil is mostly clay and it forms clumps that resemble rocks when it gets dry. To amend it, we mixed in some gypsum and a lot of compost. The scallions and onions went in next to the carrots and you can really tell the difference between the two beds. The carrots got a LOT less compost than the scallions and garlic and it shows.
Carrots on the left with the mulch, garlic and scallions on the right, with a few squash volunteers in the middle
I planted the scallions 1 inch apart from one another. I only lightly covered them up with soil. I planted the garlic 3 inches apart from one another, and I planted them so that their tops were poking out of the soil. Hopefully those distances are okay... I guess I'll find out soon.
Brassica
Here's our broccoli (I think):
I planted them 3 inches apart. The plants that have popped up seem to be about 3 inches apart, and they resemble our cabbage plants. Must be broccoli, right?
The cabbage is doing really well. At first they looked like purplish-dark green four leaf clovers. Now there are two distinct leaves separating from one another and they look less purple. Here's a pic of them:
From eye level
Close up
And here's our updated sprouting chart:
The Squash
The squash has not shown up where I DID plant it, but it certainly sprouted where I DIDN'T plant it. Well, I sort of planted it. I put a few seeds in the dirt and then the dirt got all mixed up and I gave them up for lost. But I guess the seeds didn't go along with my plan. The first time one of these squash seeds sprouted, I didn't know what it was and I picked it. Then I figured it out. Here are several stages of squashiness all present smack in the middle of the carrot patch:
Nasturtiums
The nasturtiums have had me paranoid because I would like to weed around the areas where I planted them, and I didn't know what they would look like. But I think these must be them:
Sugar Snap Peas
The peas are by far the most fun because they grow so quickly. They are starting to climb up the sticks and metal thingys I put in the ground for them:
I made a graph showing how quickly the peas grow. Every single line on the horizontal axis represents 5 days. The vertical axis is the height of our peas. I also drew lines on here to represent the heights of each member of our family.
I made that first and then realized that it probably wouldn't make much sense to our little one. So I made another chart for her:
I recorded each family member's height on here - plus the cat, the dog, and the peas.
The peas were 10 inches tall the last time I measured them (yesterday). It's amazing because they only sprouted 10 days ago! That's over an inch a day!
For the full story about "Flower Power Farm" (the name we chose for our garden):
Part 1: Preparing the soil and planting the carrot seeds
Part 2: Preparing the soil for peas and cruciferous veggies
Part 3: Enter the Pests
Part 4: The Carrots Sprouted!
Part 5: Gardening with the Kids
Part 6: The Peas Sprouted!
Part 7: The Cabbage Sprouted! |
