Urban Gardening - Early April

It's only the beginning of April, and I feel like the garden is lagging behind. A sobering shot of cold air due to arrive in the Northeast any minute tells me that I just have ants in my pants.

I did scratch my itch, and get a jump on the season by purchasing packs of mesclun mix and lettuce from a nursery this past weekend. I know! I started seeds for lettuce at the beginning of March, but I just could not resist the pretty packs of more mature greens. The lettuce seeds I started are coming along; they'll just be the second crop. The only problem I encountered with the lettuce seedlings I started was an unexpected week or so of abnormally cold weather that prevented me from putting the seedlings outside to catch some sun. The seedlings had to stay inside, so stretched in search of light. The stretching resulted in bases of plants that are a little long and floppy. Oh, well. Left: Lettuce seedlings at the beginning of March. Right: Lettuce seedlings at the beginning of April.

We planted the more mature lettuce and mesclun mix from the nursery at the front of the bed in a curving line that mimics the curve of the bed. Lettuce can tolerate a little shade, so should do well in this garden, since it is not too sunny. The sun situation could pose a problem later on with sun-worshiping summer crops like tomatoes and peppers. We'll see. You gotta take what you're given.I need lettuce, too. At my house I planted some of the lettuce plants in a container on the fire escape. I also sprinkled the container with cilantro seeds that I saved last year in a nifty origami envelope made from a take out menu.Left: Kohlrabi seedlings. Right: Chard seedlings.

I exercised extreme restraint at the nursery when I passed up the packs of chard. I started seeds for chard towards the middle/end of March. It would be foolish to buy starter plants for every plant I started from seed. "Bright Lights" chard has colored stems that are present even when a tiny seedling. At the same time I started chard seeds, I also started kohlrabi, pepper, and eggplant seeds. The kohlrabi is up. The peppers and eggplants are not up. They take longer to germinate. The seeds could also have lost their viability; I've had them for a few years. If they don't come up, it's off to the nursery!The boy purchased new patio furniture - a cute, mismatched blue and green, metal bistro set. The previous bistro set was a plastic, busted, trash pile find of mine. It served its purpose until the right set came along. If you look closely at this last (bad) picture, you'll see strings tied to the lattice. These strings are for the sugar peas we planted at the end of March to climb up. The sugar pea seedlings haven't poked their heads up, yet. Soon.

Urban Gardening - Early March