Gardening in Arvada has taken a turn in my life. In looking at the value of heat, green grass, planter boxes and our lifestyle; the planter boxes and lifestyle have won out hands down. These hands are in the dirt.
Planter boxes in one form or another have been a part of the landscape for a long time. At first they were just for flowers. Later they were a place for herbs and then cucumbers were added. Over the years the boxes and planters have become a bigger and bigger part of our yard. Now I figure if I am going to water a yard I might as well be watering edibles and they are all in raised bed planter boxes.
Lots of planting has been done this year and we are already eating the cool weather crops planted earlier this spring. The broccoli, radishes and lettuces abound. These are the areas that we are replanting for later crops as well.
The broccoli was purchased as starters from Echter’s Gardens. They have been great producers with very tender broccoli. It is definitely a vegetable that you must harvest when the plant says. An extra day or two will send the plant to flower and be a very bitter addition to your table. The great thing about broccoli is that after you harvest the main head, there is plenty more to come. The side shoots will continue to fill our plates for quite a while. They are not as pretty as the big heads that you harvest the first time around, but I always cut them up before serving in a salad or cooking anyway. Side shoots are the premium you get for growing your own broccoli.
This year’s radishes have been wonderful. The Easter Egg assortment from Botanical Interests Seeds in Broomfield, CO were planted in early May. They withstood the late season cold snap well. As soon as it turned warm, they took off. As they are looking to seed the last of the multicolored radishes will be harvested this weekend. There is nothing like fresh crisp radishes right from the garden.
There is a second crop of radishes to tell about in the future that were planted about 3 weeks later. This planting was inspired by a Food Network show.
Every year we try very hard to do successive planting of lettuce, the idea behind this is that you will not have a season’s worth of lettuce be ready to pick all in the same week. Well I think somebody needs to talk to the lettuce! Because of the late cold, both seeds and starters were planted. The seeds once again are from Botanical Interests. We purchased the starters at O’Toole’s. To our surprise, we have had some volunteer plants from last year come up too. We are quickly becoming the Rabbit family. In the garden today, ready to enjoy is Curly Leaf, Red Sails, Romaine and Green Leaf lettuce. Growing Romaine is new for me this year. I like the versatility of use. I have used it in a number of Wrap-Style entrees.
Spinach was purposefully planted later and is not quite ready for the table. We have successively planted peas, beans, squash and zucchini. Although for the last two, is it really going to matter? I already know there will be a lot of it soon.
Comments