March Garden Update

The garden is doing quite well thanks to a very rainy winter. Of course that also means that the weeds are doing well too and I could cut the back grass every day if I had the time. Ripping the crab grass out of the raised bed is a daily chore around here.

During the few frosty days of winter we tented the garden with heavy weight row covers from Gardens Alive and clear plastic painter's drop cloths from Ace Hardware. The combination of the two made a very effective greenhouse and we only lost two tomato plants to the cold. We are already harvesting a few cherry tomatoes and the Better Boy and Early Girl's have some small green tomatoes and tons of blossoms.

The second round of lettuce was planted about 2 weeks ago and it's thriving. I put shade barriers up if it's going to be over 80 degrees so the plants don't get burned. For whatever reason the spinach never really took off this year and the leaves are still very tiny. I pluck off the roots and toss them in the salad anyway but they're barely noticable.

The radishes are huge and going to seed. I picked a plant today (in the photo) that was 4 feet tall with a radish that was a bit smaller than a tennis ball. We've used up about half of the radish bed to feed Chopper so I'll reseed that part of the garden this weekend. Raising radish greens for him has saved us a lot of money on fresh food for him. He was eating about 5 heads of romaine a week. Rabbits are cute but not cheap to feed, that's for sure.