Starting Some Cool Weather Crops

April is a kind of limbo in the garden.  The weather isn't quite warm enough to chance planting out the heat loving crops, but day time temps are good for starting some cool weather crops.  The weeds haven't really starting being a problem yet and the garden is starting to look neat and organized.  The seeds that I try to plant this time of year are lettuce, peas, spinach, turnips, and carrots. These are things that will germinate despite the still chilly night time temps and can tolerate a few light frosts.
Smaller, faster growing crops like lettuce, spinach and turnips share a bed.  The peas and carrots also share a bed.  The idea is to plant another rotation of crops in these beds this summer when the spring crops have finished.  Some time in mid summer I will start another round of cold tolerant plants like cabbage and broccoli.  These will hopefully be ready to harvest by late fall.

As far as varieties go, I try to choose things that do well in my climate and soil type.   This round of carrots are Scarlet Nantes which have a stout growth habit and can help break up my hard clay soils.  I planted Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach because it will be slow to bolt in the early heat of summer.  The varieties of lettuce I grow are also heat tolerant and slow to bolt.  This round included a red curly leaf variety called sunset, a green curly leaf variety called Gentilina, and an oakleaf variety called Bronze Arrow.  The peas I planted this year are De Grace Snow peas which are a dwarf variety that produces quickly and doesn't need trellising.  I planted them in a block on half of the bed so they can support each other as they grow.

This year these cool weather crops were planted in beds that do get some shade from the resident pine tree.  When the season heats up I am hoping that the shaded areas will help extend the season for these veggies, giving me a longer harvesting period to enjoy.  I am looking forward to increasing the variety of foods coming from my backyard in the coming months.  Soon the garden will be bursting with life again.