The last two weeks have been busy with gardening activities. Strangely, in this season of growth and fresh beginnings, most of my time has been spent killing things. I’ve been cutting back overhanging and overgrown branches, pulling weeds, and slowly harvesting the last of the winter vegetables.

Several weeks ago I planted one of my beds with beets, but forgot to cover it with wire; three days later some animal had dug into the bed. Grrr. Not a big loss, as I plan on planting zucchini in that bed later anyway.

Two weeks ago I planted a row each of red russian kale, vates blue curled scots kale, lacinato kale and rainbow chard. Because it has been relatively warm and dry, the sprouts have actually emerged and are yet to be eaten by slugs.

After much careful deliberation about whether or not my seedlings will survive indoors while I am on vacation, I finally decided to just let nature take it’s course.  I planted the bandit and tadorna leeks very carefully in box C; the siegfred frost leeks never germinated so I tossed them out. Overall, the leek seedlings were in pretty poor shape and I wonder if I over watered them. Before covering them in soil, I also sowed carrot seeds in the area, since leek is supposed to protect carrots from the carrot root fly.

In that same bed, I planted my delicate little celeriac seedlings. The seed package states that the germination rate for these seeds is only 55%, however almost all of mine germinated, so there are too many seedlings per cell. I planted them in the garden and will thin them later, depending on whether or not any survive.  I also planted a row of florence fennel.

Although the tomato seedlings were still small, I planted them as well. Tigerella (North) all wilted as soon as they were planted. In that same row (South) I planted the Una Msmmss (mumble) ones. In front of Tigerella are the Odd Shapes, and beside that the Sally Mmmmmsms (Mumble) tomatoes. In the front row I planted white currant, red currant and cheesmani seedlings.  Hopefully they will survive while I am away….