Emergent garlic, peas, spinach and lettuce

Note to readers: This post was originally authored on March 18th, 2012.

The garlic is growing full tilt and I am thrilled to see over 100 healthy shoots reaching skyward. Since garlic can be somewhat pricey to purchase from seed suppliers, most of my crop is compliments of Costco, where less then $10 will buy you three pounds of Christopher Ranch soft neck bulbs. I usually then supplement this with heirloom hard neck varieties. This past fall a friend gifted me several different types of bulbs, secreted from their spouse’s private stash. The varieties remain a mystery though we shall know by May if they are hard or soft neck.

Spinach, direct seeded a few weeks ago, is now emerging and includies a smooth leaf hybrid from Johnny’s called Lombardia and a savoy leaf from Burpee called Bloomsdale Long-Standing. The first of the lettuces, direct seeded last weekend, are just beginning to appear. Given the forecast for continued mild weather I suspect that this coming week will see most, if not all, of the lettuces emerge. Also direct seeded last weekend were three varieties of carrots — Navarino (Johnny’s), Scarlet Nantes (Seeds of Change), and Nantes Half Long (Burpee) — and three varieties of bunching onions — Evergreen Long White (Burpee), Deep Purple (Johnny’s), and Cebolla (Lowes).

The peas, planted at the end of February, have how pushed up through the soil. Varieties include Snow Sweet (snow pea), Sugar Sprint (snap pea) and Premium (shelling pea), all from Johnny’s. I will begin planting succession crops every two weeks for the next month. In June the pea beds will be given over to cucumbers, melons and bush beans.