Garlic, spinach, mustard greens, and lettuce

Garlic, radish, potatoes, snap peas, and a couple of hay bales ready to plant

Abundant rain this winter and spring (hooray!), along with some very warm days over the last week, has the vegetable garden growing rapidly.

I might actually be able to try cooking some fresh favas (broad beans) this year. There are a few pods on the small number of plants that overwintered.

These plants came from seed sown in early February --it'll be interesting to see if they're able to set any fruits before our hot weather sets in. Fall planting followed by overwintering is usually the best method in our climate, but this year's cold winter zapped that!

Right now, there are more greens than we can eat directly -- the mustards, Asian greens, and older salad mix will become stir-fries; younger lettuces, spinach, purple mustard, arugula, and green onions, we'll eat fresh.

The garlic and onions are looking very promising, and the potato foliage looks great. I'll be planting squash and beans in the next couple of days, if I can squeeze it in -- otherwise, this weekend.

The transplanted tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers look good, although I still need to put the final transplants in their hay bale 'experiment.'

We've had several excellent rounds of spinach from this container (a good amount each time, actually) - yum.

This was Renee's Garden Oriental Giant Spinach - totally fabulous, and by far the most productive spinach that I've grown.

Spinach, lettuce, mustard, and mache

In the main vegetable garden this winter and spring, I'm avoiding planting brassicas (kale, collards, arugula, mustards, etc.) to dampen the root-knot nematodes (even though I have a few overwintered collards).

I'm also only going to plant nematode-resistant tomatoes and peppers when warm weather comes.

So, garlic, onion sets, lettuce, mache, and spinach are what I've planted so far. The garlic went in last fall, with the onion sets being stuck over the last couple of weeks, and the greens just sown.

I also sowed a couple of flats of spicy mesclun and radicchio, as well as large containers of spinach and mesclun. These can all be protected if a hard frost threatens. It's been mild for the last few days; not as warm as last week, but pleasant in the afternoons.

I've got all the beds ready to sow greens and early cole crops in the satellite garden, and hope I'll be able to snag the woodchuck who will be undoubtedly hungry as s/he emerges on warm days!

And my seed potatoes should arrive soon.