our maine home – zone 5b
This project took all afternoon. There was an overabundance of broccoli in the garden. It was impossible to keep up with unless we wanted to eat broccoli every day, twice a day. Some of it was flowering, some of it was way past its prime. I decided to harvest all I could find and go through it, removing the bad and preserving the good.
Result: five pounds of broccoli, chopped, blanched and frozen. Probably equally that amount tossed onto the compost. I’m glad that’s done.
I needed to get the broccoli seedlings out of the tray and into the ground. For one thing, white thready roots were coming out of the bottom of the blocks. For another, I needed the fine mesh tray for my little tomato blocks. Apparently I have only one fine-mesh tray.
So today was devoted to getting these guys planted.
First, Sam dug the bed, removing the biggest rocks and roots. We added some compost, greensand, and azomite and raked it smooth.
I planted about 40 seedlings down each side of the row. They are a little close together but not bad. I watered them in with a splash of Sam’s special alfalfa tea.
Then I had to set up the wires and the row cover. I used wooden stakes laid along the edges on one side, and heavy metal fence posts down the other. Plus some rocks. This is reused row cover, with one big hole which needed a supplemental piece.
I’m expecting this broccoli to do as well as it did last year, but we’ll see. Feeling optimistic!
An exciting day at Cross Road Gardens. It really felt like spring, for the first time, I think. A burst of gardening energy, although I only really worked for a few hours.
I feel so happy to see these brave little broccoli sprouts! It’s been cold and windy for days now, but the sprouts are getting some light and warmth in the hoophouse on sunny days.
I’ve been mulching new plants. Tucking them into their beds of hay or straw for the season. Garlic first, then today onions and then broccoli. It is satisfying and makes the row look great. Strenuous, but just think of the weeding and watering it will save and the nice healthy plants that will grow.
I took some photos of the broccoli. There are a few struggling red cabbage or maybe cauliflower mixed in there, but mostly broccoli mix. The plants are under cover to prevent flea beetle attacks, and later cabbage butterfly. I left the covers off for the afternoon to admire the row and allow it to soak up this sunshine.
A nice warm day, perfect for working in the garden. I planted seeds under the corner trellis, where we grow the next succession of greens after the hoophouse gets too hot. Arugula, spinach, escarole, Salanova lettuce, spring raab and Russian red kale.
I also adjusted the row cover so it would be more secure over the row of broccoli. The seedlings look ok, maybe a little worse for wear after being buried in snow and attacked by strong winds.
Sam refreshed two paths with wood chips, readying the root crops row for planting. And we managed to replace the zippers on the front wall of the hoophouse. The zipper tapes, presumably cotton, had deteriorated and were ripped apart by wind and our zipping. This was a monumental chore, and not finished yet. The wall is laying in a bundle on the living room floor waiting to be reinstalled.