Posted by black_hound on 2013-12-30 15:40:49 UTC
PermalinkImmediately after winter solstice the seed catalogs start arriving. First one is Jung's. Can't wait for the rest to show up. In addition to the obvious OMG SEEDS GARDENING YAY, some of these catalogs have wicked good illustrative artwork.
I know for dead sure that I am planting a whole bunch of chard this year as it was my most successful crop last year. I was able to harvest from springtime right up to the end of October. I also know that I am not planting peas or beets or radishes in my raised beds. The soil mix is way too nitrogen heavy and I got lots of leaf and nothing else. So I am going to plant in the large planter pots on my upstairs balconey/deck. I have three good sized pots and one will be radish, one will be another go at the beets, and the third may be carrots or possibly snap peas on a trellis. Much easier to get the right type of soil for those specific crops in a planter than in the raised beds. My summer crops love the raised bed soil so I don't want to amend that and then have to re-amend it for the next batch of plantings.
4 comments
I have raised beds as well. From reading your post, I shall now plant my beets in a large planter. I love beets but can never get them to grow….must be the nitrogen. Cheers to you for the post and cheers to me for beets in a pot this year.
Good luck with the beets! I had big disappointments last year with my spring plantings. I couldn't figure out why until someone here commented that it was probably the nitrogen.
Huh! Maybe that's why I have beet trouble?
From what I've read, to grow beets successfully you have to be careful with the nitrogen levels. Too much or too little and there is no joy. I have seen recommendations that it is not wise to spread manure before planting beets and the soil in my raised beds is 1/3 manure. I had all leaf and no beet. Same thing with my turnips and radishes. Fortunately my tomatoes, green beans , peppers and chard love the soil.