SasEz! Simple & Sustainable Living…

First Vegetable Patches Planted

---

Even though it’s only our second full day on the land, I couldn’t resist going ahead and getting some of my vegetable patches started

This picture may not be the greatest because I took it with my cell phone and it’s not easy to see how things turned out on that but I think it’s good enough for illustrative purposes.

Towards the front/bottom is a small mound with cucumber seeds planted in it. Around that are two curves with bell pepper, onion and lettuce seeds planted.

The lettuce is a Mesclun mix of 7 different kinds: Arugula, endive, red kale, red and green romaine, salad bowl and Lolla Rossa. It’s supposed to germinate in 7-10 days and be ready for harvest in 40-60.

My first set of onions are from seed–Evergreen Bunching is the name of the variety. They’ll sprout in 10-12 days and be ready to harvest in about 60 days.

The Bell Peppers are organic California Wonder, and they’re due to sprout in 10-12 days. Harvest is 75 days but I don’t know if that’s the green stage or not so we’ll see.

The cucumbers are Marketmore 76. They’re supposed to sprout in 8 days and be ready to harvest in 68.

The small mound at the top/center left is also cucumber, lettuce, onion and bell pepper with a couple of sunflower seeds on the north side of the mound. I may see if I can get the cucumber to climb the sunflowers

The big mound in the center is my corn. I planted Silver Queen Hybrid for now and once those sprout in 7-10 days I’ll plant Kentucky pole beans next to them. The center of that mound currently has a hole dug for raw compost materials. Once that’s filled I’ll cover it over and let it decompose in place to help feed the corn as it’s growing. The corn will take 85 days before it’s ready to harvest.

Over to the right center, not easily seeable in this picture is a small melon mound. Cantaloupe/Sugar Melon called Hale’s Best Jumbo. These should sprout in about 7 days and they’ll be ready to harvest in 85 as well.

In one to two weeks I’ll also plant the beans. These are Kentucky Blue Pole Beans and I need the corn to get a head start on growth because the beans sprout in 6-8 days and they’ll be ready to harvest in just 60. By giving the corn a week or two head start with growth, it’ll be tall enough to support the beans when they start vining.

I have a bad habit of planting things too close together and I suspect my cucumber and melon mounds aren’t big enough. They’re roughly one to one and a half foot in diameter. The corn mound is a good three and a half to four feet though so it should be just right.

Once I’m able to get more seeds I still have lots of other things I want to get in the ground–various herbs, cabbage, brocolli and cauliflower, carrots, spinach, etc.–plus I’ll be scattering more corn patches around over the next 4-6 weeks too.

Lots to do but I’ve got plenty of room now and I’m really looking forward to it!

Related Topics & Themes: Garden Journal