How does my garden grow?

It’s spring break, which means things have been hopping at the farm, with chick buying, coop building and (yay!) seed planting.

Improving my mostly clay soil is a work in progress. It still tends to be wet and cold in early spring, partly because a big chunk of my the "back 40" doesn't get much sun until the sun's east-west axis shifts after the spring equinox. With four springs under my belt in this house, I’ve learned that it doesn’t pay to rush seeds into the ground. For this year, we had intended to lay down compost in the fall so that it had a chance to kind of casually work into the soil over the winter. But our joint decision to return to school kind of messed that idea up. So we finally got the compost down this week…not ideal, but I’ll make do.

I’ve veggie gardened long enough that I know better than to plant out bean seeds and tomato starts in March, but I still flip through my trusty Seattle Tilth Maritime Northwest Garden Guide to know what to plant when, month by month. This week, it was safe to direct sow, among other things, spinach, Swiss chard, arugula, radishes, peas, turnips, onions, cilantro, parsley and chives. So I did. I also started tomato and pepper seeds indoors, about month later than I would have liked, but they’ll be fine.

The veggie garden is a pretty barren place right now, save the rhubarb, the fruiting trees and shrubs, my herb plants and the emerging asparagus, but I know it won’t be long before things are exploding!