Vegetable Garden 2011

For the last month or so I've been working on the garden for this year. I put the tiller on the DB990 tractor and worked the garden up after Darrel, Josh, and I burned it off and did a little light cleanup during a warm spell in early March. I had about a hundred Red Lasoda seed pieces that I chitted around the same time (I really should keep accurate records of this stuff...) and then put into flats for a week or so. I put them in three rows near the north end of the garden. I reset the cut-down cattle panels as arches between the posts that held them last year and then planted Sugar Snap peas under all the arches; they've been up for about a week and are now about an inch tall. I plan to put zucchini in hills under each of the four large arches, so I planted a test hill under the southernmost large arch. I doubt they will sprout since it's been too cold and wet since. Last week, I planted Nantes carrots for Megan on the east side of the northernmost tomato panel. On the same afternoon, I planted Swiss chard and Sparkle radishes in one of the center rows of the middle section. The chard has already been up for a few days now; I think it peeked through on the 29th. Coincident with the outside work, I've successfully propagated from seed, Early Girl, Jubilee, and Roma VF tomatoes; Black Beauty eggplant; purple and green tomatillos (the later from seed saved from last year); Jalapeno M and Monster Bell peppers; Early Straightneck Yellow and Zucchini squash. The Serrano chiles from old seed are the only ones that didn't sprout. All the seedlings have now been transplanted into peat pots or into Target drink cups with holes drilled in the bottoms. 50 cups for $2.49 and about two minutes with the drill beats scrounging around for pots. I've written on all the pots with a Sharpie and it looks as though I can get several years out of them...