Moxie Gardener

Seeds for early spring lettuce planted in fall and overwintered.

Success! As you can see by the photo at right, at least some of the greens seeds I planted last fall are germinating. Those in the picture are a mixture of lettuce seeds.

I love it when a plan comes together.

I should be picking baby greens for salads by the first part of May. That is, if the snowstorm we’re expecting this weekend doesn’t do them in. I’ll have to go out and cover them this evening, after they’ve had a chance to do some growing on this sunny, albeit cold, spring day.

So far, no sign of any other seeds I planted last fall—spinach, purple mizuna, arugula, pak choi, radishes, or green onion. There are some small green onions, but those were already up and growing last fall when I covered the garden.

As for the rows of mesclun and radishes I planted in the flower garden on the south side of the house, no activity there, as well as none in the large crock where I planted spinach seeds. Here’s a link to the post I wrote about that.

While I was examining the ground, I saw some ants scurrying around, doing ant things. Not that I’m in love with insects or anything, it’s just another sign of spring I thought I’d share with you.

The gardening season is finally, finally here in Minnesota.

Rock on!

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Spring Salad Greens

We’ve all seen the “volunteers” popping up in expected or unexpected places in our gardens.  “Volunteers” are plants that get started from seeds produced and scattered by our “on purpose” garden plants.  Some seeds lay dormant for years before unexpectedly popping up in the garden.

So why can’t I garden that way on purpose?  Why can’t I plant spring greens seeds in fall to overwinter and produce an extra early crop in spring?  I’ve noticed “volunteers” usually germinate earlier than planting guidelines given on seed packages.  Overall, volunteers tend to bloom or produce earlier than “gardener” seeded crops or transplants started in the house.

Several plants in my garden produced seeds this year and there are other seeds left over from spring planting.  Why not experiment and plant them this fall to see if any survive winter and germinate in spring?

This afternoon I went out and planted seeds of radishes, green onions and five different spring greens:  spinach, purple mizuna greens, arugula, pak choi and a combination of two different lettuces.  Following is the general procedure I followed:

1. Removed weeds and surface mulch to compost pile.  Some seedlings of radishes were growing in the bed and I left them to see if they survive.
2. Spread about a half inch of finished compost over the bed.  Used claw to mix into topsoil and smoothed bed.
3. Planted seeds much deeper than I normally would in spring.
4. Planted seeds more thickly than usual.
5. Did not water after planting.
6. Uncovered now, will be covered before freezing weather settles in for good.

I planted the greens nine to a square foot, using the square foot method.  The radishes were planted four to each of the squares in a square foot divided into nine smaller squares.  The green onions were randomly scattered in a bed where some summer “volunteer” green onions are already growing.  This bed does not conform to the square foot method; its area is a “sort-of” rectangle of approximately three square feet.

The soil should be thawed out by mid-April at the earliest, unless we have an unusually mild March (not likely).  I predict the seeds will germinate by late April.  By Memorial Day, I should be harvesting baby greens and radishes.  The green onions will probably reach pencil size by the Fourth of July.

Of course, this is assuming the seeds survive winter and germinate.

I’ll post follow-ups for each of the vegetables and report their germination date, approximate rate of germination, and the date of first harvest.