We are all excited to work in the garden! Cool weather crops like broccoli, spinach, lettuce, peas and cabbage are ideal to plant right now. If you didn’t get a chance to cut and dry your seed potatoes, it is not too late to do so. Just cut them up with a couple of “eyes” or sprouts on each piece and let them crust over for two or three days. There is a myriad of ways to plant them but most people put them in the ground. Dig a trench. Plant them twelve inches apart with three inches of soil over the top. As they grow cover up the stems with more soil, leaving a few leaves on top. Strangely, they are closely related to tomatoes. It’s best to keep them separate from each other in the garden. Otherwise, they tend to share diseases.
In general, when planting seeds, the depth should be no more than 4 x the diameter of the seed. So a pea seed will be planted to about the length of your first knuckle, while lettuce, which is super tiny, is almost on the surface of the ground. I like to mix the tiniest seed with cornmeal before applying. It makes it easier to see where I’m putting it and it spreads it a little thinner.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers are warm season crops and they love mild nights and warm ground. Generally, May is great time to plant these warm season crops. There is nothing more fun than going out into the garden and eating cherry tomatoes right off the vine!
Just for a giggle, try a new vegetable this year! Have you ever grown Kohlrabi? It’s hugely popular in Asia. Mild and crunchy when eaten raw, it’s loaded with nutrients, minerals and vitamins. How about growing peanuts? They flower and then “peg”- the former flower tip drops over and plants itself. Super weird and fun!