New Garden Week 1

The first weeks of April in the new garden have passed, and the plants are still alive!  Many of the new seed plantings are growing, with some that need to be thinned and new seeds planted.

With North to the left side of the photo, I have started planting in the center two rows of the garden.

Sunday morning as the rain threatened, I thinned the Romaine, Swiss Chard and Basil.  Then I planted 2 more Spinach seeds and 4 more Romaine seeds.
My garden is laid out like this:
In the center two rows, left, then right...

• Romaine plants transplanted from 2/23 and 3/25
• Kale plant transplanted on 2/23, with new Basil, Oregano and Spinach seeds on 4/12
• 4 Romaine plants transplanted from 3/25
• 2 Swiss Chard seeds planted 4/12, and 2 Spinach seeds on 4/21
• 4 Romaine seeds planted 4/12
• Open
• 4 Romaine seeds planted 4/21
• Open

The idea is to grow the older plants on the North and West sides of the garden with the younger plants to the South and East sides so there won't be any serious shading of the younger plants.

Kale top left with Basil above it, Spinach and Oregano to the right side.

If everything keeps growing, I'll continue planting 2 to 4 Romaine seeds weekly.  I still have 10 open garden grids available, so that will give me 14 full grids of Romaine plants (hopefully 56 full heads of lettuce) and more than enough Spinach leaves for salads with some Kale and Swiss Chard leaves to add spice to salads during the week.  The Spinach won't keep through the heat as it died out the last time I tried this.  The Romaine and Swiss Chard seemed to survive anything.
The Oregano and Basil should provide enough leaves to freeze or dry for seasoning, and may survive past the Florida fall.  

Romaine at the top left with newer Romaine crops to the right.  Even newer seeds have been planted to the right of the photograph.

The Parris Island Cos Romaine I am growing should take about 68 days to mature for harvest.  These heirloom plants should reach between 10" and 12" high and have dark green leaves.
The expected harvesting dates for the crop so far would be around May 3, June 1, June 19 and July 1.  Since freshly grown lettuce keeps longer in the refrigerator than store-bought produce does, this potentially could supply us with plenty of table lettuce through the first week of September.  That's provided the crop survives the heat and the tropical storms of summer.
I'll continue to write a weekly summary with plant photos.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Started

I finally put aside some other items and started my garden.

My garden is finally started!

For new plants, I planted the seeds directly in the garden instead of first starting them in the nursery.  I have 8 Romaine lettuce plants, the first one in my nursery was potted on 2/23/13, the rest on 3/25/15.  4 more were directly planted in the garden as seeds on 4/12/13.

The romaine.

My kale plant was potted in the nursery on 2/23/13.  I planted seeds for oregano, basil, spinach and Swiss chard on 4/12/13.
I'll plant 2 to 4 more lettuce seeds each week.  My goal is to harvest 2 full lettuce heads weekly, and pull some leaves from the chard and spinach for my salads.  The herbs I'll use as needed.  They took over the garden in the past, so one plant of each will be more than enough.
While I'm starting late this year, I think my lettuce will be fine.
On 4/13/13 all of the plantings were still alive, none were eaten or withered.  I watered the garden and said a prayer for the seeds.
Now we'll watch.
Happy gardening!