Last Ditch

I have been growing in my new space for about a month and a bit now, so I thought it might be nice to share some updates and lessons learned. The space is basically two beds, one fairly square and the other long and rectangular. In the square bed, I planted poc choi, peas, amaranth, black sesame, quinoa, and beets on one side. In the middle is a little footpath I seeded with clover, which is coming in nicely. On the other side of the bed, I planted onions, potatoes, beets, radishes, spinach, peppers, and carrots.

The grains and the spinach look pretty ragged but everything is filling in pretty nicely! The garlic and onion sets I planted elsewhere are looking happy and have probably grown the most of anything.

One of the things I have already learned is that chucking a bunch of rows of seed into an empty bed isn’t necessarily a bad approach but it does have its drawbacks. I essentially opened up a plant buffet in the middle of a food desert by having so many seedlings sprout at the same time. Because it’s been such a cool, wet spring, a lot of plants are delayed, so this sudden burst of life was an advertisement to every bug and grub in town. Despite being the new go to all you can eat in town, the sheer number of sprouts has also provided a bit of protection. The strength in numbers approach can certainly work but I think had the beds been cover cropped, I would have had less loss.

May draws to a close and despite all the wet weather, or because of it, the garden is looking really good! I’ll replant the corn and beans, and sow every week for a few weeks to see if I can have more success with that method.