Gonna make this garden grow!
Patchwork’s garden is underway for the 2022 season!
The Master Gardeners of Southwestern Indiana came out this week to do some clearing, weeding, organizing, and mulching in the raised beds that they helped us construct last year.
They also visited the Arts & Smarts program on Thursday to help our participants start our cold season crops in our raised beds. These crops included onions, lettuce, carrots, and radishes. To maximize our harvests within our relatively small garden space, the Master Gardeners showed us how to mix radish and carrot seeds so the radishes will grow quickly and be harvested just as the carrots start their growth spurt and fill the spaces where the radishes once were. They also showed us how to plant our onion sets so we can harvest every other one in June when we can eat them as a green onions, which leaves more room for the rest of the onions to grow to full size by fall.
The Master Gardeners also showed us how to plant seeds in cups to sprout indoors and plant outdoors when the weather is consistently warmer. These plants included zinnias and sunflowers to attract pollinators to our garden. Several weeks ago, Jane led us in taking some of the sweet potatoes from last year’s garden and soaking them in water to get sweet potato slips to plant this year.
We’ve reserved space in our raised beds for warmer weather crops like tomatoes, squash, and the sweet potatoes. In addition, there are plants that overwintered in our raised beds. These include kale, chives, fennel, and lemon balm.
By June, we expect to make a tasty salad using the things we’ve grown ourselves.