Fenton Friday: Cool Season Seedlings

'Lunchbox' Peppers

These past few weeks the new fall interns and I have been busy planting some cool season crops from seed these past few weeks. That includes: 'Viroflay' Spinach, 'Cherry Belle' Radish, 'Bopak' Pak Choi, 'Wando' Shelling Peas, Arugula, Lettuce Mesclun mix, and 'Long Satnding' Cilantro. A few have germinated and are recognizable, others are being slow to show up and many need reseeding. A lot of the seeds I had were a bit old, so many not have the best germination rates, plus we've had a few very rains that may have washed some of them away.

We also seeded one area with Mustard Greens as a cover crop and those are filling in nicely. They are meant as a soil amendment, though we can certainly harvest and eat some of those leaves too.

Elsewhere in the plot, we are still harvesting Cherry Tomatoes and Peppers, plus some self-sown Arugula. I'm also cutting Zinnias, Celosia, and Cosmos.

The Zucchini vines have declined rapidly, so I'll pull those soon and maybe try out another cover crop there.

How is your edible garden growing?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.