The garden getting tilled.

The garden this evening.

 It's Friday, April 6. The sun is setting on what has been a cool and gorgeous day. Everything looks so lush outside: the grass that already needs mowing, the lilacs, the tulips,  and the trees are nearly fully in leaf. The forecast calls for a week of cool, dry weather.

Well, this week, I finally did some planting directly in the garden. Tuesday was gorgeous, and I went out into the sunny day and started working the soil. It felt fantastic. (Working in the garden again, and the soil.) My neighbor, Frank, did a wonderful job tilling the garden this year. The soil is deeply tilled, and feels alive in your hands. I've put in three rows, each about 42 feet long and about two feet wide. Two of them are planted with a variety of peas, radishes and greens. One row of peas are standard shelling peas, and the other a variety called Desiree Dwarf Blauwschokker. They're supposed to have "stunning violet-blue pods produced on lovely little bush plants that do not require staking" according to the Baker Creek seed catalog. The peas were violet colored!
Radishes I planted are long red ones called Cincinnati Market, Round Black and White. As for greens, I've planted red romaine, crisp mint lettuce, arugula, and mustard greens. I've got more varieties of everything to go in once the ground is dry enough to work... We got about an inch and a half of rain mid-week, so am currently waiting for it to all soak in.

The first peas are up! (& a crawdad has made a home among the radishes!

And inside, the garden is going along too... In the seed room in our garage, I've got eggplants, celery, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, peppers, spinach,  and herbs growing. The tomatoes, spinach and cabbage all seem to be doing very well. It's almost time to start transplanting the seedlings out of the flats they're growing in into larger pots. I'm going to make these pots, starting tonight, out of newspaper. That way they can go right into the ground and I don't have to buy anything else. There's been a lot going on this week, and some of it may affect my time in the garden this week... I'll let ya'll know once it's official. Until then, take care, and enjoy this spring weather!

Tomatoes, eggplants & spinach.