Planting Radishes and Carrots, Plus Lettuce & Chard Updates

Today I had about five minutes of light gardening energy so I planted some radish and carrot seeds. I have a new package of radishes but that package said I had to wait until the soil temperature was warmer so I planted some of last year's package. These grew great last year. I know they might not have as perfect a germination rate (last year must have been close to 100%!) being older seeds but I figure it's worth a try. I planted one row of these, in between the front edge of the vegetable bed and the first row of lettuce seedlings.

 This is the back of the radish seed package.

I planted two long rows  of carrot seeds and one tiny short row, kind of like a squared off "U." These are planted in between the second row of romaine lettuce seedlings and the start of the Swiss chard plants.

This the back of the carrot seed package. This is the first of my MI Gardener order to be planted. It's also the first time I remember planting carrots as an adult. We'll see how it goes! I meant for these to go in a different place that has heavy clay soil but it turns out that place is overrun by Bermuda grass. These tough carrots may be able to handle the clay but I doubt they can compete with both the clay and the Bermuda grass so that's why I changed my plan. 

This is what the raised bed looked like before planting today.

These are the shallow furrows I lightly made with a fingertip for the carrot seeds.

As you can see in the picture above, three of the lettuce plants I put in last week are doing great. Before taking the photo, I harvested three large (for the size of the plants) leaves off of them and enjoyed them with my lunch. That tiny bit of green towards the top right is the fourth lettuce plant, which something ate to the stem. I didn't think it really had a chance of surviving but it looks a bit better than it had been looking so maybe it does. We'll see.

The Swiss chard is settling in fairy well, considering that I basically tore a solid block of seedlings into many pieces and planted them. I haven't harvested any yet but plan to do so soon as the larger clumps need thinning.

I haven't done the original post on planting my bean seeds yet but all six are already showing signs of life and I think that's wonderful and exciting.

May God bless you and all you grow!