I expected I wouldn't be able to keep up with this blog; two weeks have gone by. In the interim, I had the opportunity to tour community gardens in New York City (Brooklyn) on a tour associated with the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, hosted by World Hunger Year and Just Food. Great engagement with and by the community in several community gardens - oases in what are otherwise food deserts.

Back in DC, lettuce,… Continue

First harvest last Saturday (4/25) - enough spinach (silver dollar size) for two salads. More again on Tuesday, and lettuce is ready for leaf harvest. Should have enough of both for a few solid weeks. Everything survived 3 90-degree days (in April!). Fortunately the spinach is too young to even consider bolting.



Green beans are up, everyone else is happy and continues to grow. A few more beds turned over yesterday before what is looking to be a pretty significant few days of… Continue

April 10, 2009. (~2.5 hours). A gorgeous spring day (70 degrees) in DC! With rain predicted for mid-afternoon, including thunderstorms, I responded to the urge to put more seeds in the ground to soak up the rain. You never know at this time of year if we'll get 1/4 inch or 2 inches, the latter capable of shutting down gardening for days. Of course, now almost midnight, and no rain yet. Now I really want that good soaking.



Soil was just perfect for everything I had in mind.… Continue

April 8, 2009. (~2 hours labor). It's now just 4 weeks since "early" planting of spinach, lettuce, onions, peas. Despite the cold snap for most of the past few weeks, I got excellent germination all around with the exception of one small bed of lettuce. Seed might have washed around a bit. Reseeded/overseeded and sprinkled some soil on top. Here are a couple of rows of spinach (some a bit dense):

A couple of missed spots in the rows of… Continue

No need to worry about my early planting "experiment" (3/9), at least for lettuce, spinach and onions. I started seeing germinated seedlings 8 days later, despite the below-average temperatures during that time, and up to today. I was glad to have gotten them in early, because we did have 5 or 6 days of rainy weather leading up to my traditional St. Pat's Day planting date. I never checked how much rain fell -- probably less than one inch -- but I have to admit to shuddering at the thought of… Continue