The first things you can plant in the spring are what I call "cool weather" plants. This will be partially based on what growing region you live in, but generally you can start planting these as soon as the threat of freezing temperatures is over. In the middle of the eastern US coast, this includes plants such as lettuce, onions, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, radishes, carrots, and spinach. Last fall I had a few onions that weren't ready to be picked, so those are coming back out and I am leaving them to see how they do. I also have a chive plant coming back out from last year. Next to those, I dropped in some red onions. These can be spaced fairly close together because they grow straight up and down. Beside the onions I added a couple spinach plants. These need more space because they grow into large plants. I then put a couple rows of lettuce seeds - one row of romaine lettuce and one row of black-seeded simpson lettuce. I marked the 4 lettuce seed locations across the garden with some fun painted stones, which make a wonderful craft project with kids in the winter! These were painted by a great friend and her daughter - aren't they lovely?! Finally, I added some radish and carrot seeds around the onions, chives, and spinach. Radish and carrot seeds can be planted around other things in the garden because they don't branch out. After I finished getting all the plants and seeds in the ground, I watered it, making sure not to use a hard spray that would displace seeds.
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| The start to the 2016 trough garden |
