This post is part of the Garden Share Collective. Each month a group of dedicated bloggers and gardeners share stories of adventures in their vegetable gardens. The gardens are from around the globe so you get a snapshot of what is happening in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, from snowy winter to spring to late summer. Click on the link above to visit the gardens.
The last month has been busy and I haven’t had much time to work in the garden. Consequently, some things have bolted before I had a chance to harvest them. Now everything seems to be ready at once. I certainly won’t have to visit the produce market much this month, we will all be very healthy from all the leafy greens.
What am I harvesting?
- Chard – all colors
- Tuscan kale
- Beets and beet greens (more greens than beets)
- Herbs – rosemary, thyme, parsley, cilantro, mint, and nepitella (from Italy, Calamintha nepeta which tastes like a cross between oregano and mint)
- Broccoli raab
- Handful of snap peas (they never made it out of the garden)
- Lettuce of all kinds
- The first asparagus
- Baby cauliflower and broccoli Romenesco – more on that later in the post
- Meyer lemons
The heads of the broccoli and cauliflower never made it past two inches in diameter. Some research tuned up the probable reason. We have had an unusually warm winter and both of them (especially the heirloom varieties I planted) need a certain amount of winter chill. The plants are healthy and huge but have not produced a crop. I’ll leave them until later in the month, then I will be pulling out the plants from that raised bed to make way for the first summer vegetables. I’ve heard that the leaves from the plants are delicious and will make good use of them.
The lettuce is starting to bolt. I’ll be planting more this month.
This plant is called a tree collard. Supposedly it grows to six feet in height and produces wonderful edible collard leaves. Mine is only about eight inches tall to date, I purchased it at a seed exchange in mid February. You propagate it by stem cuttings and a gentleman was selling them at a rock bottom price.
Tree Collard
Planting and chores for March:
- direct sowing of lettuce and arugula
- beets
- radishes
- carrots
- parsley
- add compost to everything
- pull out and compost anything that is past its prime
- cut down the fava beans, chop them up, and compost them back into the soil
- harvest, harvest, harvest
Spring is definitely here early this year.
Borage in bloom
Thank you for visiting.