I have been traveling for most of the month of April and just returned to Napa for the weekend to take stock of what I planted April 2nd.
As I had only one day to get my spring garden planted, I left San Francisco at 6 AM to drive up to Napa (about one hour door to door). It was a really foggy start to the day, but the sun popped out about 10:30 and started to warm up the soil. April 2nd is a bit early to be planting vegetables, so I decided to cover the boxes with Plant & Seed Blanket, which my mother called frost cloth, just in case. As Forni Brown (see Carolyn’s post) was not open, I headed to Van Winden’s Garden Center to buy my organic starts.
I have a different and smaller configuration of planting boxes than Carolyn. Within my fenced cottage garden, I have 4, twenty-four square foot boxes. Since it is important to rotate crops I have numbered my boxes for record keeping.
I already had about 3 square feet of radish in different stages of harvest, so in Bed #1, I added 3 Genovese basil starts, 2 onion chive starts, 3 starts of Italian dark parsley, thyme and oregano. When I have harvested the last of the radishes, I can plant more starts so I will have a continuing harvest. Not sure what I will plant when the time comes.
Bed #2. Half the bed was planted in different types of lettuces, which continue to provide salad for dinners. I added 1 Astia zucchini, 1 zucchini squash and 1 butternut squash.
Bed #3 became my tomato bed this year. (last year it was bed #4). I planted 1 start each of Carmelita, Health Kick, Black Krim, Sun Gold, Sweet 100, Heirloom Legend, Roma and San Marzano. I am trying three new tomato varieties this year. Sweet 100 and San Marzano I will plant every year.
Bed #4. I planted 1 each of Pepperoncini pepper, Red bell pepper, Better bell pepper, California Wonder green pepper, Green zucchini and 2 six-pack starts of bush green beans.
All the plant photos in this post represent starts that have been in the garden for 4 weeks.
What are you planting this spring?
