The Pollen is Fallin'

Mid to upper-sixties in the garden this morning, with mostly cloudy skies ... and the green dust of pine pollen floating through the air.

First, fill in spaces left by unsuccessful germination of seeds:
~The radish row had a big gap. I planted more Early Scarlet variety. This later planting gives the added benefit of spreading out the harvest.
~Only one row of beets (the middle) germinated well. I planted two more rows, one on each side. Trying Ruby Queen variety this time.

Picked my first red radish yesterday.

Red Russian - the last to bolt

The end of the winter kale season has finally arrived. We sure have enjoyed fresh kale salads and tender cooked greens. I harvested a tub full of the Red Russian variety and cut the last bit of the Curly Blue Scotch variety. The aphids had settled in and were quite prolific on these mature plants. The row of Red Russian was hardest hit. The reason? I believe the aphids came over from the raised bed "next-door". Last fall, aphids had taken over the sweet potato plants. When I pulled up all those plants the aphids moved over to the first row of kale they came to ... the Red Russian. The next row, lacinato kale, had a few aphids. The row furthest from the sweet potato vines? Almost none. All three rows growing in the same bed. No worries, though. Those bugs can't compete with a little soak in cold salt water and will not interfere with the edibility of the greens.

I put up a string trellis to support the sugar snaps as they grow. I don't know why I didn't first remove the hoops from the winter row cover system! Oh, well. Just another good reason to spend time in the garden.