Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Organic Garden Update

Monday was a true anti-MACA day (see yesterday’s post) for me: I sowed organic vegetable seeds into the organic soil of my organic garden.

I planted another row of peas, plus I put seeds of beets (photo), carrots, radishes, mesclun, arugula, spinach, Swiss chard, purple kale and broccoli rabe into the ground. All grow well in the cooler temperatures of spring and fall, and the sun forecast for later this week should help the germination process.

Beet seeds look a little like Grape Nuts cereal, while seeds of arugula, chard, kale and broccoli rabe are small rounds, slightly larger than this period. Carrot and mesclun seeds resemble carraway seeds, and radish and spinach seeds are about the size of this o.

Unfortunately there is nothing to report on the peas, mesclun and bok choy I planted last week. This was expected, though, considering the cold, wet weather we just experienced. There’s a good chance these seeds never take.

I know this may sound sacrilegious to our friends at MACA, but the only “crop protection technologies” I employ are the pulling of weeds by hand and the adding of compost in the spring and fall. The weeds (some edible) will grow in earnest once it turns warmer and will compete with the vegetables for water and nutrients in the soil.

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