APRIL 11TH, 2010
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This morning, with the abundance of good weather days we’ve had, I decided to commit the cardinal sin of zone 6: planting before the frost-free date of April 15th. Truth be told, we’ve been planting for over a week now. The real reason you wait ’til after 4/15 is to ensure that the ground isn’t frozen–since it certainly isn’t, and we haven’t had a night dip below 40*F, I figured we were good to go. Into the ground went radishes (a mixture of French Breakfast, Cherry Belle, and an Easter Egg mix), salad greens, arugula, mustard mix, and a few sunflowers, to boot. For the radishes, we used found metal shelving with 1″ grid to lay out our planting map. It was a terrific guiding frame, and made planting a heck of a lot easier (and more articulate!). Before I left for the day, I also set up a bucket of water with peas, to soak overnight: in case the soil dries out, I like to pre-sprout my peas before planting. Next week, I’m aiming to put in carrots, more peas, and another round of salad–after all, if you sow a new crop of greens every 10 days, you get a continual salad through the bolting-inducing solstice!