More delayed sprouts...

Thanks to a cold early Spring, some of our early crops are coming in a bit late.  But, they are germinating as expected, so all is well.  It seems that the only risk of planting early is the delay, but no lost crops.

I was surprised how long it took the peas and fava beans to show a sign of life.  These are considered the earliest of "cold weather" crops, and some took three or four weeks to germinate

Fava Bean

Fava Bean

Fava beans and peas are both legumes that have similar looking early sprouts.  Their cotyledons stay underground, while curled up true leaves are the first to emerge. 

Pea

Pea

Yellow-veined chard

Chard, and also beets (which are both the same species, Beta vulgaris) take a little long to germinate, and then will grow slowly during the beginning of the gardening season.  These chard sprouts in the photo were in a very sunny, south-facing planter, so emerged within two weeks.  I have others planted in shadier areas that have still yet to germinate after four weeks. 

Lettuce

This particular lettuce is growing very fast, especially in comparison to the general slow pace of the other lettuces.  They certainly don't all grow at the same rates.  These were planted nearly four weeks earlier and already have a few true leaves.

Garlic in mid-April

Here's how our garlic is looking now...

Rainy day activity - making homemade Chia Pets(!!)

After a few days of summer-like weather, we finally had a two straight days of nice rain.  The plants are happy.  But, we had to rely more on indoor activities for my After-School gardening class.  Below is one easy and fun thing to do...

Homemade Chia Pets(!!)

Everybody loves the Chia Pets that are advertised on TV.  While we won't make a ceramic animal, we can make our own homemade chia pets with the correct supplies and a little creativity(!!!).

What is chia?

Chia seeds are not a grain, but the seed from either of two different chia species, salvia hispanica or salvia columbariae.  They are in the mint family, and close relations of other salvias, many that we grow for flowers, plus sage.  Salvia hispanica is native to southern Mexico and Guatemala, and salvia columbariae is native to the deserts of the United States' Southwest.  The indigenous peoples of both regions traditionally ground the seeds for food, or added them whole to nutritious beverages.

Chia's recent emergence   

While most Americans were only familiar with chia's utility in growing fur-like sprouts on cute ceramic animals, chia has made a recent emergence as the latest “miracle seed”, which can be found in any health food store and many smoothie shops.  Chia seeds placed in water quickly emit a gelatinous-like substance that closely resembles tapioca.  Both the health benefits and texture are appealing.  Chia sprouts are enjoyed as any other sprout.


Supplies for a homemade chia pet

-  Cheesecloth or old stockings, cut into 1' squares
-  String
-  Googly Eyes
-  Chia seeds (!!).  Or, if cheating, grass or wheat will suffice (but don't say
    that I recommended this).  A mix of chia and grass is also nice.
-  Soil
-  Small cup or jar

Steps


1) Soak chia seeds in water
2) Cut cheesecloth into square
3) (Optional) Us string (or if fancy, us a thread and needle) to create ears and a nose, etc.
(or) just draw a face with a Sharpie when all done.
4)  Add a spoon full of waterlogged chia seeds to the area of the cloth that will grow sprouts
5)  Add a handful of soil
6)  Bring corners together and tie shut with string.
7) Place string side down in cup, jar or any water-tight base.
8) Water
9) Enjoy!  

Final verdict on early planting

Arugula

After a few days of warm weather (70s and even some low-80s), plus steady watering, we finally do have a lot of germination from many of the early sown seeds.  These are the seeds that were planted as early as three weeks ago, right before and after our mini-blizzard, plus some that were planted as recently as ten days ago.  The more recent sowing should soon germinate.

Turnips

Radish

Most of the expected are germinating: arugula, radishes, turnips, kale, kohlrabi, pak choy, lettuce and spinach.  We are still waiting for the Beta Vulgaris species (beets and chard) as well as carrots, but those take longer, so no surprise.  I would have expected the fava beans and peas to have already germinated, but still not giving up hope.  As seen in the photos, the brassicas have similar looking cotyledons, while the lettuce and spinach are in different families so a lot more distinguishable.

So, the final verdict is that the early sowing really was fine, and these seeds can just wait around in the soil for a few weeks as the temperature warms up...  We have done this for a few years, but this was the coolest early Spring where I planted this early.  Meanwhile, most other gardeners are starting to think about their garden right now (April 10th) and ours is starting to sprout.

Kale

Spinach

Lettuce

Verdict on Early Planting Strategy

...still not sure.  While I'm not recommending that all gardeners get a huge head start on their Spring planting, I'm still unsure if my strategy for scheduling reasons, is a good one.  Still waiting to see if there are any downsides.

FINALLY, after very little rain, outdoor water supplies not yet turned on, and a cold early Spring, we have some germination.  Not to discount all the normal "Spring activity" like garlic, tulips, daffodils, etc, but now we have some arugula sprouts, direct sown before Spring Break, two weeks ago.  Very slow, but there is a sign of life from our Spring planting!

I'm expecting radishes, turnips, spinach, kale, collards, peas, fava beans, etc. to follow suit very soon.  Tardiness is okay, but zero or low rates of germination will be taken note of, and planting those crops will be delayed a few weeks next year.  I still have faith in all...so look for an update...hopefully sooner than later.

My belief is that the main issue here is lack-of-water, not heat.  

Note the poorly sifted compost on the soil.  It doesn't seem to hurt directly sown seeds.

Planting and Harvesting Calendar for NYC

A lot of people ask me when I can start planting.  Seed starting, direct sowing, transplanting, etc., etc.  Here's a timeline that gives a basic guideline for NYC.  It's not perfect nor are these dates absolute, but a good place to start.  If I were to make some edits, I'd say that the early indoor seed starting window could be moved later.  I still encourage people to start by March 1, but if starting a bit later...still go for it.

Another garden plan explained

A photo from a past season...

Here's another early and late planting map explained.  I'll try to avoid repeating too many of the same concepts from my prior garden plan post.  The earlier posting was for a school garden, where each small section was allotted for a class, whereas the below plan is for our community garden's Group Vegetable Garden, which is a ~400 s.f. space shared by 22 people.

The goal of this part of our community garden, is to allow new members to work in a garden while on the wait list for their individual plots.  It also allows us to mentor beginning gardeners, share knowledge, etc. Finally, we really do push for a lot of vegetable production. 

We used to have big planting days in the early Spring and kind of wing it, expecting a large group to pull together it's knowledge assets and make the garden happen. Now, I've moved it towards a central plan, but using a democratic process to for crop selection.  This way, we just get things planted and all are happy.

Similar to the school garden's explanation, I'll first cover the Summer plan, and work backwards.  The lower tier is set aside for tomatoes, plus basil and carrots as their companions.  This year we are doing lasagna or sheet composting for that tier, so I'm not sure if the carrots will germinate on a layer of paper, so they may be skipped in that area.  The back triangle of the lower tier has some horseradish plants that tend to take over, and we're also going to plant parsnips (which were a huge hit last year). 

A typical harvest from last Summer

The center row of the middle tier will have warm-weather crops, so the early season planting will be quicker crops.  The other rows have early, full season crops like chard, collards, kohlrabi, kale and rudabagas, which were already planted in late March and will remain until the Fall (or longer).

The upper tier has some cold weather plants replaced with warm, and some long season plants.  The garlic was planted last November, and will be harvested in July, and then replanted, maybe to be covered with a hoop house next Winter.


 
The early plan shown below has some of the full season crops that were described above.  The quick crops that will be rotated with warm weather crops, include arugula, spinach, fava beans, lettuce, radishes, cilantro and bak choy.  It's important to understand that not all "short season" crops are created equal.  The quickest are radishes and spinach.  Soon after, the arugula will bolt (or go to seed).  Then, lettuce.  We will have to make some choices and harvest some salad greens in their entirety to make room for the new, before they reached their full potential.  Still, baby or young salad greens are great, so no loss.  Arugula and lettuce will sometimes bolt before getting bitter (as it gets hotter), or get bitter before it bolts...so always worth making space and not worry about extending their lives.  Or, both happen at the same time, as heat affects taste and bolting.  Fava beans are often done by late June or early July, so we'll plant okra seedlings in between the fava bean plants by mid-June, and as the fava bean plants wither away, the okra will take over.  Okra grows super-quick in the heat and can be started as late as July, so no need to speed the process of their predecessors, so hence I chose fava beans rather than something that would be harvested earlier.

One more upgrade we made this year, in addition to the lasagna composting in the lower tier, is our using raised beds and sunken paths.  We're following a smaller scale version of a concept that I've seen in some urban farms in Brooklyn, using coffee bean sacks to cover the paths.  This will hopefully reduce or eliminate foot traffic in the beds, whereas in the past, our brick or wooden plank paths were level with the beds, so people would be tempted to veer off the paths and step on the soil.  The raised beds will also increase drainage, and speed up the warming of the soil in the Spring.  Finally, the new paths will just make the entire garden a lot more assessable and easier to work on, better ergonomics (rather than trying to balance on a 6" plank while weeding, harvesting, etc.).  Lots of benefits, so we believe that it's worth the sacrifice in planting space.  See some recent photos...