Second Plantings

After my extremely busy and fun weekend of martini bridal showers and downtown chicago bachelorette parties, I decided it was time for a second round of plantings outside. I opted to wait a few more days before planting the tomatoes outside, but I did sow the easter egg radishes along with the purple, yellow, and green bush beans. From my reading, radishes do not take long to germinate (as little as 3 days) and only a few weeks to be ready for harvest. I only did 8 bean bushes to prevent overload of beans. I plan to plant more every few weeks to be able to continue to harvest beans.

I also sowed a second row of heirloom spinach and cucumber plants that my Mom purchased for the garden. I was not originally planning on having cucumbers, but I found a great place for them and they will definitely be a nice addition.

Since this is my first garden, it was very difficult to handle the emotional aspect of thinning the spinach, beets, and carrots. I felt like I was killing those little seedlings before they ever got the chance to be something great and delicious! Clearly, I am very optimistic about my success as a first time vegetable gardener. I reconciled my internal conflict by reminding myself of the necessity of thinning to help promote healthy, full sized vegetables. So...thinned I did. It looks great, and there are still plenty of beets, spinach, and carrots to thoroughly enjoy!