Today we did some cool weather planting. Before Pesach we put in the strawberry plants and started lettuce – otherwise, the only things there are some garlic, leek, and onion that have been there over the winter. The lettuce has started coming up in the garden bed as well as one of the planters that they were planted in. One of the planters didn’t drain properly, so I think everything in that one must have drowned from sitting in so much water after the heavy rain we had on yom tov.
There are two times for planting – the spring (cool weather crops), and then the summer (warm weather crops), and then you can plant the cool weather seeds again in the fall when it’s cool. Last year I didn’t start thinking about a garden until the very end of May, so I totally missed the timeline for the cool weather crops (and when the fall came I was still pretty uneducated so I missed the chance again :)). This year I’m fortunately a little more aware of planting timelines than I was last year! The things that can be planted now should be finished by the time the summer plants/ seeds are ready to go in the ground, so it’s a good use of garden space to double up – I think it’s called succession planting.
Today we turned over the ground in the raised beds to loosen the soil and pulled up any weeds that sprouted since the summer. Then we planted garden peas, snow peas, turnips, beets, spinach, and mesclun greens. I was a little lackadaisical about how I planted the spinach – bending over for so long wasn’t so comfortable (that’s the reality of being a week away from my due date!), so I sprinkled them haphazardly around and stirred some dirt over them. I’m not so optimistic about their chances for success. It’s a good thing my kids planted more carefully than me!
Since this is our first time planting spring vegetables, it will be interesting to see what comes up in the next couple of months. I wanted to get these seeds in before Pesach but it would have been too much of a rush, and as I’ve said before, I don’t like the pressure that comes with rushing. I want my kids to have positive associations of the things we do together, even the work, and that would be pretty hard if I was tense and stressed out!
Today the weather was beautiful, and we all enjoyed working outside together. As I looked around my yard this afternoon, I was thinking how much more I wanted to do as far as preparing more lasagna beds for the summer planting, and creating mulched paths between the beds because it gives such a nice tidy look to the yard! I’d still like to have that, but unless in the next couple of days I can muster up the energy and enthusiasm to do some major work (driving back and forth loading lots of compost and mulch, unloading, going back for more….), that’s going to have to wait until the fall.
Have you ever felt like moving slower than usual and being mellow? That’s how I’m feeling right now, and I’m not mentally geared up for rushing around in the next couple of days. I’m glad to have gotten these seeds in the ground, and also to have cleaned up the back deck of all those things that accumulated over the winter. At this point, the main thing I want to accomplish this week is my monthly shopping so that I know we’re stocked up for food for the next 5 – 7 weeks, and that’s a full two day project (one day of shopping, one day of organizing to put everything away). (I initially planned to go on Friday, right after Pesach, but it seemed like too much of a rush, so I’ll go this Wednesday instead when my bulk order is ready to be picked up.)
I find it helpful to balance busy and slow periods – when I do, I can enjoy the busy times and enjoy feeling accomplished, but not get overwhelmed. After the intense busyness of the Pesach season, it’s a good time for all Jewish women to relax a little and enjoy the feel of spring in the air. 🙂
Avivah
