spring planting

We typically just plant a four foot x four foot raised bed in the square foot style for our spring garden. When things calm down a bit, we’ll expand the spring garden. For now, though, with a toddler that never stops moving and a baby on the way, we’ll stick with the sixteen square feet of space we have and keep working the rest of the beds for the “summer” plants to come. This year, we’re planting mostly greens because they’re so easy and so nutritious. We’ve already planted the following:

• Red Russian Kale and Red Winter Kale from Nature’s Crossroads, both of which we’ve had great luck with in the past
• We’re trying out Astro Arugula for the first time this year. I’m hoping to make and freeze lots of arugula pesto (recipe to come hopefully).
• We’re also trying some Black Seeded Simpson lettuce for the first time just because I thought it looked tasty, and it is slow to bolt, which is an extra benefit with the crazy warm weather we’ve been having so far this year.

I came across this great article on lettuce varieties that got me all kinds of excited about greens if you need some motivation to get planting now. I love growing greens because you can usually pick them a few times and get several rounds out of them. I’m hoping to teach Jasper how to pick the greens this year since bending over is getting a wee bit more complicated. He needs to start earning his keep anyway, don’t you think?!