For a day last week I thought I might regret having planted the early seeds in my garden a couple weeks ago. Then, lucky for us, we only got a tiny bit of snow and some rain rather than the predicted three to seven inches (or four to eight, depending on the source). Greatly encouraged, I had a look at the Plot Against Hunger garden yesterday. The broccoli weathered the winter very well.
The Cornell University Alumni planted these last fall.
I had a look at the plants and harvested the florets that were ready. Then I did some weeding, pulling some of the broccoli plants that had either been broken off too far by sidewalk harvesters or looked as though they wouldn’t recover as it got warmer. Then I started to plan the early plantings based on available space. As I was walking the edge of the garden near the sidewalk, I noticed some of the carrots that had wintered over. On the other side of the garden the carrots had all been eaten by voles, but these had survived and grown.
The voles obviously missed these.
Once I harvested the carrots, I hoed a few rows, keeping the voracious voles in mind. I planted onions, which the voles don’t seem to care for, near the fence. Then, near the perimeter of the garden, where the voles would be very exposed if they decided to dine, I planted beets and more carrots. I don’t know whether the voles eat kale, but I planted a row of that in front of the onions. I also put in some bok choi, spinach and radishes. We’ll see how they fare.
I’ll keep harvesting broccoli periodically and planning for the later spring and summer plantings—mostly squash and collards, I think. But in the meantime, maybe I’ll just look forward to taking in more of spring.
There were lots of florets and more coming on.
