Last week, I planted one square of spinach (nine seeds) and two squares of peas (eight seeds each). The spinach will be ready to harvest beginning in April--by far one of the earliest crops.
Earlier this week, I also planted six squares of onions (a whopping sixteen seeds each) and one square of lettuce (nine seeds). The lettuce will be ready around the same time as the spinach, but the onions take about sixteen weeks, so they won't be ready until late June. Whereas we're staggering the spinach and lettuce squares, we planted the onions all at once because they take so long to grow and they're easy to store.
To make planting easier, I created a sort of jig to ensure even spacing.
I then added a pinch of vermiculite to each hole. It acts as a sponge to absorb water and also makes it easier for the seeds to sprout through the surface.
As you can see, the onion seeds are rather tiny, so it was no simple feat to place one in each hole, but single-seed sowing avoids having to thin the veggie beds later. Plus, then we don't waste any seeds. I'll be interested to see what percentage of seeds actually sprout and survive.
Earlier this week, I also planted six squares of onions (a whopping sixteen seeds each) and one square of lettuce (nine seeds). The lettuce will be ready around the same time as the spinach, but the onions take about sixteen weeks, so they won't be ready until late June. Whereas we're staggering the spinach and lettuce squares, we planted the onions all at once because they take so long to grow and they're easy to store.
To make planting easier, I created a sort of jig to ensure even spacing.
I then added a pinch of vermiculite to each hole. It acts as a sponge to absorb water and also makes it easier for the seeds to sprout through the surface.
As you can see, the onion seeds are rather tiny, so it was no simple feat to place one in each hole, but single-seed sowing avoids having to thin the veggie beds later. Plus, then we don't waste any seeds. I'll be interested to see what percentage of seeds actually sprout and survive.
2 comments:
Yay!! Good for you! How did you make your grids? They look great! Love the cloche too, by the way. :)
Our veggie beds are eight feet long, so I just measured and marked one-foot intervals, cut the twine to length, and stapled them to the top of the bed. It hasn't worked great (partially because of pet interference), so I'm rethinking other approaches.
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