A reinvigorated garden

The Pearson Garden, owned by Bountiful Cities, and now managed by Patchwork Urban Farms, is flourishing.

Lots of peas, greens, and turnips!

A productive urban garden

I discovered Bountiful Cities and the Pearson Garden some years ago, after we bought our small infill house in Montford in 2008. I've posted about them before.

It was a community garden then, and often looked great.

It was so nice to visit the Montford Farm Stand this afternoon and check out how nice the garden is looking. I joined as a member, took a dozen eggs and some white Japanese turnips as this week's purchase, so I'm a happy neighbor.

Carrots, peas, arugula, spinach, and kale

Finally, my carrot seeds have popped up cotyledons today (not surprisingly, with our exceptionally warm March weather this last week).  I'd planted them early, being hopeful - and ready to plant.  So I've been waiting.  (And my late test seeds indoors had just germinated, so I knew they were viable!) 

They're the same varieties that I had grown last fall, and was surprised by.

last December's unexpected harvest of Pusa Purple and Pusa Red carrots

Arugula and kale were quick to come up, as was the spinach, sown in flats, satisfying for a "hoping it's spring" gardener, and I do think we're in the home stretch.

I poked around the peas a couple of days ago (thinking, hmm, maybe they froze/rotted/etc.,), but no, thankfully, they're now germinating, too, as the soil in my raised beds has warmed.  February was so darn cold that it slowed things down, but March is flirting with record high temperatures here in Asheville, so spring seems fully sprung.

The early spring wildflowers (bloodroot, spring beauty, hepatica) are all flowering, as are red maples, etc.

This is the third winter that I'll be needing to replace rosemary, as well as not having any "hardy" greens overwintering (I haven't had extra protection), aside from creasy greens, which can freeze solid and still come back.

Spinach, beets, carrots, and arugula

I planted all of these (spinach, beets, carrots, and arugula) early in the week, just before the temperatures dipped again.  But it'll be warming up over the weekend, and it's time to sow seeds, even if it's a bit colder than "normal" -- whatever that passes for now.

I'm going to soak some sugar snap peas overnight, and sow them tomorrow, along with a variety of lettuce seeds, kales, and collards.

It's time.  It's late February.  Even with the extremes of a changing climate, gardeners will keep planting.  And even though it's a bit harder to predict which of the cool-season veggies might do the best this spring, I'll just plant a variety of things, and see.

This has been the third winter that I haven't had greens like kale, mustard, or arugula overwinter (the extreme lows took them out).  I wasn't using any season extension, which would have made a difference, I'm sure.

incredibly tasty and succulent carrots, although not impressive-looking!

In a program today, I was talking about how well a specific sort of carrot (Pusa Rudhira Red Carrot)
had done in my fall vegetable garden.  These were bred for the hotter, drier conditions of India, and absolutely flourished last fall.  I sowed them in August and harvested them in in November not expecting anything. Amazing.

A search of previous blog posts about carrots was interesting, too.  I've had reasonable success with shorter, small varieties like Thumbelina - and enjoyed them as well, apparently!

Ready to plant

I'm waiting.  I'm trying to be patient. These mild February days are trying.

beds ready to plant.....

Surely spinach, sugar snap peas, kale, or lettuce seeds (my itching to garden voice says?)  Uh, global climate change is good for something, she whispers....

But.  Even in the Piedmont, peas sown before late February were problematic.  And of course in mild winter years, here in the mountains and in the Piedmont, lots of greens overwintered and would be flourishing now.

But.  Here was a post from a few years back:  wise, I thought, in retrospect.

This winter, as has happened in the last two before, there have been hard freezes that took out all of the greens, aside from leeks and garlic.  I have a nice rosemary plant which I think has survived so far (the last two winters sapped them, after decades of being OK).

I'm still ready to plant.  I've ordered some wire cloches that may serve as small protective coverings with some row cover or plastic, so we'll see.  I was eyeing some space next to the studio this morning as potential cold frame space.