First Planting In The Garden This Year….

With the weather slowly transitioning to Spring we decided to make use of the 55 degree temperatures (but windy!) this weekend and get the garden rolling out.  In January we planted our Spring seeds and they have anxiously been waiting to move outside.  The broccoli grew so tall inside that we couldn’t raise our grow lights anymore.  Besides the sugar snap peas, carrots and radishes that will be planted directly into the soil, here’s the lineup of the Spring garden.

This year we planted many more broccoli plants then cauliflower.   We use broccoli in so many more dishes and it freezes great so it seemed like the best choice to take advantage of the container space.  We also have a ton of onions for Matthew to enjoy.   We are going to be trying to grow collard greens for the first time this year and I’m hoping for success so I can make this recipe every single day.

The seedlings were moved outside a few days ago to slowly transition.  We do this so they can harden off and not get shocked by the new weather they’re experiencing.  For the first week we’ll throw fabric on top of the seedlings to protect then from the sun. Everyday they’ll be exposed to the sun a bit longer so by the time the week is over they will be able to hand it completely.

We spent all day Sunday sniffling on the roof refreshing the containers and putting new plastic on them.  We also always water the wick of potting mix in the bottom of the container real good to prepare it.  Once the containers are made, we move them to their locations and then start cutting holes in the plastic to transplant the plants.  Here is a box of 16 broccoli plants.

This year we  added a additional container for the broccoli and cauliflower so it’s up to 7.  We plant 4 broccoli plants and 3 cauliflowers in each container.   The plants don’t need that much space to grow big so we take advantage of every inch on the roof.

It’s really amazing to see how big the roots already are for the broccoli plants.  As you can see they were ready to move into bigger containers.

To see the difference in plants here’s one broccoli in the back and 2 cauliflowers up front.

This little cauliflower plant will grow into a beautiful head. I say it all the time, but it’s magic to see.

Since it’s windy on the roof we enclose them in our PVC pipe structure and wrap fabric around them.   Wind blocker fabric is one of the must haves if building a garden on the roof to protect the plants.

Besides the broccoli and cauliflower, we had enough time left in the day to plant our collard greens.  This is the first year we’re growing them so I’m pretty excited.

There’s 6 of these plants so we did 3 per container.

After everything is planted we water the containers and they are set to go.  Over the next few days they’ll transition to their new Spring home and then we’ll sit back and cheer them on.

We still have to plant the onions, kale and pak choi but we’ll be saving that for later this week.  

Meet me back next week for Spring planting Part 2.  I’ll have plenty of onion pictures for you.  Check out how big these onions are already, can’t wait to separate them and get them in their box!