Garden Activity Picking Up!

So much to get done in the garden!  Rain was predicted for today and I had students scheduled, starting at 11:00am throughout the afternoon, so I got an early start.  I ate breakfast with Rouse the Spouse - a lush bowlful of cooked oats loaded with peanut butter, slivered almonds, and blueberries with a hint of brown sugar - and headed out to the garden after he left for the office.  It was already sprinkling, but I was serious about getting my garden chores completed this morning.  I put on my raincoat!  The sprinkles came and went, never really interfering with the task at hand.

First, the snap peas.  I'm way late compared to last year.  According to my records, in 2009 I planted the sugar snaps on February 7!  I could've had them in the ground this year a couple of weekends ago, but I was waiting for back-ordered Sugar Ann Snap Pea seeds.  Turns out they arrived in the mail on Monday.  I counted out the number I needed to plant and got them soaking in water on Tuesday.  They plumped up nicely within 24 hours and, as of this morning, are tucked into the ground in two neat rows.

Next, the potatoes. I worked up a sweat making two "lazy beds"!  The lazy part comes later, when the potatoes are ready to be harvested. Each raised bed contains three rows of potates. I placed the seed potato chunks (sectioned and drying since Friday morning), cut side down, about 4" apart, pressing them firmly into the soil. I then covered them with a thick layer of leaf mulch. One bed is full of Purple Vikings, the other consists of one-third Red Pontiacs and two-thirds Yukon Golds.

The beauty of the lazy bed is that potatoes don't have to be "dug" out of the earth.  The tubers form very shallowly in the surface layer of soil under the thick layer of mulch.  Young potatoes should be ready to eat in 8 weeks.

Yippee!  The first row of radishes are up!  Since the entire row of radishes will mature together, I planted a second row to extend the radish harvest.