Garden

Good starts!

It's a busy time for planting! Carol Pope takes us inside her family garden and greenhouse.

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Credit: Carol Pope

It’s that busy time of year. Between editing GardenWise and getting the garden in, there isn’t much time to blog…


Still, there’s lots of planting going on in our family garden and greenhouse and I wanted to share a bit of it with you. We still haven’t got the zucchini in, because we need some warm weather for it to germinate and it just won’t stop raining—but on the bright side, the spinach, chard, beets, lettuce and kale are a “growing” concern!

Kale

I’ve got to give it to kale—this plant just won’t quit. We tossed seeds into a deep-root tray of soil and it was spilling over with leaves just three weeks later. We started these under a fluorescent grow light inside and they were so excited by it that they came out a bit leggy, so we planted them with the stems immersed about an inch deep in the soil. Problem solved—our kale has all been growing happily ever since.
Planting kale

Spinach

A little fish fertilizer has given these spinach starts a glossy green.
planting spinach

Swiss chard

The Swiss chard seedlings were leggy, too, so like the kale we planted them with about an inch of the stem below the soil line.
Planting swiss chard seedlings

Just getting started

There’s a lot more! Check out more photos of my garden here >>>