Tuesday, February 21, 2012

February in the Garden

This is our first week back at the cottage since the beginning of February. My fingers were crossed I didn't miss any monumental changes, including the chance to see the first asparagus of the year. I had read that asparagus can grow several inches in a few hours. I swear these weren't here yesterday.


I have no idea which year these were planted and I know you're only supposed to harvest little, if any, in the first three years. I plan to wait a few days and see what else appears before deciding what to do.

Last night when we came in, it was nice for the first time to not have to run to the grocery store to pick up some fresh produce. We had enough greens for a little feast to make a salad and chard risotto.


We plan to spend the rest of the week here so I will finally have enough time to prepare several beds for planting. Here's a 4'x6' bed I prepped this morning using the square foot gardening method. It will contain peppers, carrots, radishes, chard, lettuce, calendulas and bachelor buttons. I planted seeds for most of them this morning and have some lettuce I will transplant tomorrow.


I planted about 130 pea seeds a few weeks back which are now bursting out of the ground underneath my homemade trellis. I read that birds LOVE pea seeds so I was so happy to see they all survived.


I also prepared this bed nearby with brussel sprouts, thyme and onions two weeks ago. I'm still deciding what to grow in the rest of the bed.


Near the asparagus surprise, I made another discovery. A few weeks back when I was weeding, I came across a monster root that looked quite healthy. I decided to leave it be to see what would grow. And it looks like rhubarb is now peeking out. I'm wondering if one rhubarb plant will do or do I need to add that to my evergrowing list of plants to grow.


The next few weeks will be busy, but it's nice to finally see some of the work I've done start to pay off.



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