What's Sprouting in the Garden

A few weeks ago (on my birthday, actually!) I decided it had warmed up enough to plant my spring seeds - mostly greens and a few other things, and I am happy to report that nearly everything has come up.  Shown above are the radish sprouts, which were in need of thinning in this photo but I thinned them out a bit today.  I don't actually really like radishes, but Lawson loves them so I always plant some for him.  He didn't realize that I had planted any this time until the other day I mentioned it and he lit up with excitement. While I am the main gardener in the household he gets very excited about having fresh vegetables and really appreciates the effort that goes into the garden.

I planted several of my self-watering containers full of lettuce mixes, which I usually grow as cut and come again.  I planted them fairly thickly and will definitely need to thin them out too. 

I planted a number of containers of sugar snap peas (I believe they are the Sugar Ann variety); last fall I grew these with just a stake to support each one since the seed catalog said they were self-supporting, and they grew all over the place, so this year I planted them around the base of some tomato cages.  I also only planted a few plants last fall since my garden was so full then, and didn't really get much out of them - I am hoping with 10-15 plants I will get a more meaningful yield.

I planted a bed of arugula, which is one of my favorite greens to grow since it is so fast and easy to grow.  Again, this will definitely need to be thinned although I may wait just a bit so that I can add the thinnings to salad.

I also still have a number of things growing that overwintered from the fall, as I mentioned before... the kales in the photo above are purple so they are a bit hard to see, but I am hoping they will grow bigger before it gets warm (and the cabbage worms return, grr).

I had this pot of spinach too, although I actually cut off all the larger leaves to use in tonight's dinner, which was great since it worked out to just the amount the recipe called for...  I love it when the food growing in the garden comes in handy like that, like a strategic vegetable reserve!  Now I just have to bide my time (and do a little thinning) until the spring plantings get to be a more edible size.

I'm linking up with a new weekly Urban Homesteader blog party on Food. Soil. Thread.