Planted My First Garden Crop This Year

First Crop In!

In my favorite book, The Encyclopedia of Country Living, written by homesteader, Carla Emery, she tells of planting the first seeds in the early spring, which were peas. Since she was in Idaho, her spring was probably much colder than mine here in upstate New York. I always read that part when spring is here and I can't start planting yet. Peas are a cold weather crop. She said you could plant them in the fall and they will come up in the spring on their own. Just remember they are there, and don't plow them up in the spring.

First Bed Is In!

My husband had plowed up a couple of my raised beds already on one of our nicer days. So I planted a whole raised bed of peas. Just had to poke the seed down an inch and cover it back up. Took me all of 20 minutes. We are still having cold nights, but cold weather crops should survive those nights.

More beds to do!

As you can see, the beds that haven't been worked on yet, look terrible. I am embarrassed to admit, I did not put them to bed for the winter properly last year. My father's death, and working on putting his house in order to sell, left us totally exhausted. We lost all our harvest and wore ourselves out. We aren't twenty anymore! We will make up for that this year!

Another bed ready to plant!

Our spring has been very cold, the temperature is in the twenties in the morning. Yesterday morning, we had frost. I hear our weather is supposed to be nice for the next five days. If that turns out to be right, I hope to get more beds in shape and ready to plant. Memorial Day is the day in our area, when most people get their gardens in. I try to beat that, but many times end up starting my plants in containers and transplanting them. I will keep some in containers though,  in case I need to take them with me when we move from here. Happy planting!

Copyright © 2013 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2013  Kathleen G. Lupole