I wasn't able to get as much gardening done this past weekend as I would have liked. We've had a good amount of rain and overcast skies so far this month - not surprising considering it's April in New England. The garden remains pretty wet still but the plants don't seem to mind it all too much. When I dig down 6 inches in my planting beds, I see lots of water ( pools of it in fact). Our yard has significant drainage issues this time of year but the ground tends of dry out by the time June rolls around. Let's hope that's the case this year.
I did get around to transplanting some broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, purple sprouting broccoli (from Dan) and savoy cabbage. For me, it always becomes a lot easier to evaluate your overall available gardening space once your early spring greens and brassicas are in (I always tend to underestimate the amount of growing space I have). I want to make sure I leave enough room to grow all of my summer crops but it also would be nice to have enough space left over to fit in a second sowing of brassicas if I can. We love broccoli around here and any remaining space available will be planted with it.
Question to those of you who've grown purple sprouting broccoli - can I expect anything this year? Or will the plant only produce edible buds the following year?
On Sunday, I was also able to install my carrot box, which was built using 2x6's and made to fit one side of an existing bed. Our soil is so heavy here that it is often different to get carrots that are straight. Hopefully, adding another 6 inches of fine potting medium to the top will help us achieve better results (and deter the mice). I placed fabric row cover on top to help shield the germinating seeds from this week's heavy rains.
Looking good I love the straw between the beds. My dad used to grow purple sprouting it always flowered the same year.
ReplyDeleteI'm a great fan of sprouting broccoli and have written about it a lot on my blog (www.marksvegplot.blogspot.com), which you are welcome to visit. You will see that I consider broccoli to be very photogenic!
ReplyDeleteI sow broccoli in May, and I start harvesting the following March. It's a long wait, but worth it!
I forgot about the mice problem. We back up to a cow pasture - I'm surprised we don't have more problem with field mice than we do. Feral cats are our problem. They took the tops off the majority of my onions this week.
ReplyDeleteUnderestimating is better than the alternative. I think I overestimated how many pots my poor balcony could hold.
ReplyDeleteI know this is typical weather in New England, but I'm ready for Spring!
I hope your Purple Sprouting does better than mine - I ripped mine out the other day to make room for peppers. My Piricicaba is going gangbusters but the purple has been spindly and weak since the beginning - I'm thinking it may not be suited for my southern climate and will probably do much better up where you are.
ReplyDeleteWe got our first broccoli yesterday. Would have had an earlier harvest but my dogs did the harvesting for me and didn't share. We have to put baracades around the plants to keep them safe. Yesterday they tried another raid but only managed to get some leaves. Since when are dogs vegetarians?
ReplyDeleteI'm shocked how well our lot drains. It drains so much better than at my last house and I was on a slope at the last house. I guess there is a difference between heavy clay and slightly sandy soil. My soil dries out almost instantly. It will be a problem over the summer. If I had known how much it would dry out I would have stuck to 2x4s to build the beds instead of 2x6s. It is great for the shoulder seasons though as it dethaws and is dry very early in the spring compared to my old place.
ReplyDeletePurple sprouting broccoli is definitely something I need to try. I've also been looking into sea kale, which produces a similar kind of spring broccoli crop... and it's a true perennial.
ReplyDeleteWhere can you buy the fabric row covering material (I believe it is called remay). I can't find it anywhere near by and I don't really want to send away for some.
ReplyDeletewell, I guess you either have feral cats or mice...not both!
ReplyDeleteyour garden is looking great Thomas. it's autumn here and i've just planted my purple sprouting broccoli - we have a much milder climate than you (no snow!) but the purple broccoli here seems to like the colder weather more than other types, does take longer to produce, but produces over a longer time period. it takes about 7 months here from sowing to producing buds, grown over our winter. i've tried a spring sowing for summer harvesting but it didn't produce anything so think it needs colder temps - not sure how hot you get? on reflection that's probably not much help to you! will be interesting to see how you go with it.
ReplyDeleteThe garden looks so tidy and beautiful. Raising the bed up some more is a good idea for the carrots.
ReplyDeleteYour garden is a beauty! What do you use for bug control? Your veggies look so beautiful. :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent overview, it pointed me out something I didn’t realize before. I should encourage for your wonderful work. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. Thank you for sharing this information with us.
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