Get out and Garden

The past few days I have loved being out digging in my vegetable garden! The compost that I put on the garden in the fall helps to make the soil soft and easy to dig. To my surprise some lettuce and parsley survived this harsh winter, so did the kale but that was no surprise. The peas are in and today in goes the lettuce, kale, and spinach with the broccoli soon to follow. Now if you are thinking that it is too early to be planting outside you are mistaken. My Great-Grand Father taught me that peas get planted on or as close to St. Patrick's day as possible. I combine that with gardening by the moon phases, which says that you plant everything that grows its "fruit" above ground on a waxing moon such as peas and and broccoli. You then plant everything that grows its "fruit" underground on a waning moon such as carrots and parsnips. A waxing moon in when the moon is growing, going from a dark moon to a full moon and the waning moon from full to dark. I remember when I was young and I thought planting by the moon meant going out at night and planting in the moon light.

The peas that I plant are snow peas and sugar peas. Both have edible pods, the snow peas have a flat pod while the sugar peas have a fuller rounder pod. Both are great for steaming, adding to stir-fry's, adding to salads, and of course snacking on. When my son was little and spent many hour playing in the back yard I never have enough peas for dinner because he would snack on them all day long and I could not have been happier.

I like planting leaf lettuce now so that it will be coming up just as it is really getting warm and we are craving fresh food from the garden. I chose leaf lettuce so each evening I go out to the garden and pick just the amount of lettuce that I need for that meal instead of an entire head. This lettuce will not survive the summer heat but will go to seed, replant itself and in the fall start growing again for a fall crop.

In two week I will be planting carrots,, parsnips, radishes, and beets. The compost here again is a big help because the ground in my area is all clay and very hard for root vegetables to to grow in. With the addition of compost every fall I have been able to to create a soft soil for the root vegetables to grow quite large.

I will be waiting until it stays warm, around the end of May or April before I plant my tomatoes and beans. I don't start the tomatoes from seed because growing anything indoors for me usually does not work. I travel up to the Lancaster Pennsylvania area to buy beautiful healthy plants to finish off my planting.

If you do not have the space for a garden planting in containers is a great alternative. However you garden eating your own-grown vegetables is well worth any effort.