April Garden Update

Last post, I talked about the seedlings, some of which were added to the outside raised beds.  But there are a few crops already planted and growing well.  At the very end of February I planted butter crunch lettuce, and this is what it looks like after 5 weeks of growing:

There are a couple of the new arugula transplants at the bottom right.

According to the planting information, the lettuce will be ready in 60 days, which would put it at the end of April. Realistically, I could begin harvesting individual outer leaves in about 2 weeks.












The Kale and Chard are at about the same place, having been planted a couple days later:

Transplant March 5

And the Napa cabbage trailed by about a week so it will be ready in early May.

Growing for 30 days - April 4

I harvested a few of the outside leaves this evening for some greens to stuff my gyros.  Perfectly sweet and tender. 

The lower bed

Napa cabbage

This is the lower bed, which I set up today.  The raised bed has been used for the last few years so the soil is in good shape.  There just isn't enough of it to fill the bed.  Today I added peat moss, compost, and one bag of actual potting soil.  The resulting mix was very light and workable.

This bed had been part of a high tunnel in the past but now I'm dropping it down to a low tunnel.  The high tunnel was creating too big a profile and kept catching the wind abs breaking ribs

Napa Cabbage is listed at 75 days to harvest but I need to subtract two weeks since these are already at the transplant stage.  That gives us 60 days from today, so around the beginning of May these should be ready to harvest. 

The March Challenge is to prepare the remaining three beds.  This is the first of those three.