Only Amateurs Wait Until June

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chives, Fruit and Vegetable, garden, Home, Onion, Potato, Produce, Saskatchewan

Ask anyone in Saskatchewan, “When do you plant your garden?” and the answer will be, “Potatoes on May long weekend, and the rest during the first week of June.”

Not us.  As soon as you can work the soil, we say.  We’ve already got spinach sprouting in one of the raised beds.  Apparently, peas like the cooler weather, too.  We’ve also planted garlic, onions, potatoes and cabbage.  The chives are well on their way, as are the winter onions.  We’ll be eating fresh garden produce in a few weeks.

Yes, it’s possible some of the peas may not sprout, or the potatoes will refuse to grow, but so what?  Then we go buy another $2 package of seeds and try again.  It well worth the financial risk to be eating garden fresh veggies three or four weeks earlier, especially when you live in climate that has such a short growing season.

Plus, the sooner things grow, the sooner I get to start canning again!

Liesl supervised all the activity. She’s dying to get out and eat those spinach sprouts.

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Garden Update

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chickens, chives, covered rows, garden, onions, planting, raised beds, spring, sprouts

We have very long winters here, so by January, my husband, Will, is getting a bit antsy for spring.  That’s when he starts some seedlings indoors.  By March, the indoor grow-op just isn’t cutting it anymore – he wants to plant.  So he does.

Last year, he made a couple permanent raised beds in the garden, so that starting late March/early April, he can sow directly into the garden.  He covers the rows in plastic, and if we’re lucky, they stay warm enough and the seeds start to sprout.  Now, normally, no one plants in Saskatchewan until after the last frost, which is around the middle of May.  However, the way we look at it, if nothing sprouts, we’re out $3 for the pack of seeds, and we can always re-sow later.  But if the seeds do sprout, hurrah!  We are eating spinach, green onions, and lettuce in early May.  So really, it’s a win-win situation.

This year, they’ve sprouted.  We should be having fresh greens by next week. Now to keep the chickens from destroying the sprouts . . .

Covered row

Green onions – yummmy!

Lettuce

Spinach

Chives – these grow like weeds and are impossible to kill. But that’s okay because they’re delicious.

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• How To Keep Chickens Out of Your Raised Bed Garden (katydidcountry.com)