Orange and Green Discoveries

While waiting for winter, spring has arrived. On a recent warm and sunny day, a burst of excitement sparked me to take a peak in our raised beds. One of our beds was plastic covered all winter, therefore warming up faster in spring. Able to work the soil, I cleaned out some dead lettuce and made a couple discoveries. The patch of about twenty gorgeous carrots has overwintered beautifully. Another surprise

was the healthy mache, lettuce, and spinach greens that are ready to be cut, washed, and eaten. With freshly worked areas of soil, I joyfully planted seeds! Once soil can be worked, a bunch of cold hardy seeds may be planted. So far I have planted 24 radishes, lettuce seeds, kale, and 3 lettuce starts. The season is early but I love experimenting especially when they work out. Last year we successfully planted a four by four raised bed on March 6th, they sprouted on the 17th and we enjoyed our first salad with April 25th. So with this mild winter we're having, I am only really pushing the (my) season by a couple weeks.