Garden Update: First planting and a little advice to boot

Indoors, the lettuce seeds have sprouted and a few of the bell peppers are starting to sprout.

I also planted some herb seeds for windowsill pots in my kitchen. Curly parsley, flat parsley, chives, cilantro, thyme, marjoram, and sweet basil. Can't wait to start cooking with those beauties!

In my February 2nd post, I noted that we had broken ground on this year's garden and that I've started some of our seeds indoors.

This past weekend, I started our outdoor planting... and I'm so excited!

I planted:
"Little Marvel" English peas (Northerners call 'em "green peas")
"Short n' Sweet" Carrots

Both of these are cold-lovers and both are planted directly in the ground as seeds. They don't like to be transplanted. Everything in our garden is planted in north-to-south rows for best sun exposure and good air circulation.

To plant peas:
Peas are climbers. They need something to hold on to. So, when you plant peas, you need to have a fence, trellis, teepee or some other netting or structure for the peas to climb on. You can even make a net out of string. This needs to be in place BEFORE you put the seeds in the ground. We use sections of wire fence.

We put up the fence sections by driving stakes in the ground and wiring the fence sections to the stakes.

Right up against the fence, I dug a 1-inch deep trench, running the length of the fence. Peas need to be planted 1/2 to 1 inch deep. I dropped the pea seeds in the trench, spacing them 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart. If you space them that far apart, then you really won't need to thin the seedlings later on.

I covered the seeds with dirt (don't pack the dirt down), and gently watered with a hose on a "mist" spray setting. We should see sprouts in a week or two. The plants should mature in about 63 days.


I said I wasn't going to try carrots again this year... until I found the "Short n' Sweet" variety. These carrots are bred to grow in heavy, poor, or compact soil. My soil is definitely heavy, full of clay and chert. It's a common problem up here in the mountains of East Tennessee. The "Short n' Sweet" carrots only get about 4 inches long and since they're reported to actually do well in heavy soil (I read a lot of good recommendations on this particular carrot - even THE Martha Stewart is singing their praises), I decided to give 'em a try.

To plant carrots:
Carrots don't like rocks and they don't like clumpy dirt. You need to till, till, till your ground (we tilled the carrot patch 4 times) and then rake it out really smooth. Try to get your dirt as "fluffy" as possible. (Sounds like we're baking a cake, doesn't it?!)

After the dirt is prepared, drive a couple of sticks in the ground to mark each end of your rows and run a long string between them to mark your row. Then, dig a 1/2 inch deep trench along the line. Sprinkle the trench with water to get it good and damp.

Carrot seeds are tiny. TEE-tiny. It's easy to sow too many and be left with a whole lot of seedlings to have to thin out later on. If you can manage it, carefully sprinkle the seeds in the trench, trying to drop one seed approximately every 1 1/2 to 2 inches. OR, you can mix the seed with sand and just sprinkle the whole mix down the trench.

The carrots should sprout in a week or two. After they've sprouted, you can remove the sticks and string. Once the seedlings are about an inch tall, then thin them out to 3 inches between plants. The carrots will mature and be ready for harvest in about 68 days.

Peas in 63 days, carrots in 68 days. Hmmm. Do you know when these veggies should be coming in? Right around April 15th. Yep, TAX DAY. That's kind of cool! When other people are paying in, I'll be stickin' it to the man with my own harvest. YEAH! Another victory for the Victory Garden!

Now, for the advice part of this post.

I forgot to do something this weekend when I was out planting, and today I am paying the price.

What did I forget? A sunhat and sunscreen. Today my face is red and stinging from a sunburn. Miss Scarlett wouldn't have forgotten her sunbonnet, but I sure forgot mine.

In my younger days, you'd have never seen me wearing a sunhat. And sunscreen? Forget about it. I never would put it on.

I don't know, but it seems like the sun has just gotten more intense in the last several years. Or it could just be that time is starting to creep up on me. Yes, I'm 34. Nowhere near ready for retirement yet, but there are "silver threads" among the brown. And it seems like sunburns hurt a lot more now than they used to.

Anyway, when it's time to get out in your garden, please remember to do what the Australians do: Slip, Slop, Slap.

SLIP on a shirt
SLOP on some sunscreen
SLAP on a sunhat

and protect yourself from sun damage!

Share this post