Spring Planting Time!

Spring is right around the corner, the days are getting warmer and we are starting have some spring storms. Now is the time to be planting your early spring vegetables in the garden. While most people think of St. Patrick’s day for planting potatoes, it is also time to be planting other things. I prepared my garden beds over the winter and was ready to go with my spring greens and roots. My kids and I planted a 6 x 6 raised garden bed with spinach, lettuce, kohlrabi, and radishes. The following week I planted onions in a similar bed. 

 

 

While it is yet too early for tomatoes (soil temperatures should be at least 60 degrees F.), we can plant many of the cool season veggies that will provide us with fresh eats after a winter of eating from the grocery store. What is better than home-grown spinach and radishes? 

Now is a good time to be setting out cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower seedlings into your prepared beds. Plant radishes, carrots, kohlrabi, spinach, lettuce, and peas by seed. Onion plants set the largest bulbs, and potatoes can be planted now too. I like to set all my veggies out in blocks or triple rows, except for potatoes. Potatoes go in rows or towers, with rows spaced at least 16 inches apart. As potatoes grow they should be hilled up to keep new spuds from being exposed to sunlight. 

Peas are excellent when planted in blocks of 2 ft x 2 ft or larger, as they support themselves by twining around each other. If planted in rows, peas should be supported with trellises to keep them off the ground. I like to do triple rows of cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli, interspersed with onions and radishes. They should be covered with a floating row cover to protect from cabbage looper, cabbage worm, and cross-striped cabbage worm. It will also keep down harlequin bugs as the temperatures warm up. 

Lettuce and spinach should be grown in blocks to conserve space. They can be cut easily with a knife when the leaves reach 3 inches tall. Kohlrabi, which tastes like a cross between cabbage and turnips, can be planted in double or triple rows, next to rows of radishes and blocks of onions. 

For more information on planting onions and potatoes, come to Grimm’s Gardens Hiawatha location to get your onions and potatoes today! We also carry Botanical Interests vegetable and flower seeds.

 

Happy Planting!