The weather is starting to break here in Central New York State. It still has been pretty wet as we received about 2.5 inches of rain over the last week.
Despite the rain, the garden has dried out somewhat, so I started the gardening season yesterday. Even though I have been planting seeds and tending to the seedlings, it felt good to actually work in the garden itself.
Last season, I built a raised bed type of enclosure for lettuce, kale, and other greens I plant. There are several reasons i did this. Mainly, the enclosure protects the greens from birds, woodchucks, rabbits and more, as I cover the top with netting. Later in the summer, I then change the general purpose netting to shade cloth, which works very well to protect delicate greens from the hot summer sun.
The first step was to cultivate the soil after the long cold winter.
Next I separated out individual plants. Today I am planting the kale, lettuce, and Brussels sprouts that I started using the Winter Sowing method. After the seeds sprouted, I have kept the plants in my porch greenhouse until planting time. As a refresher, see my earlier video on Winter
Sowing(https://steempeak.com/gardening/@dansgardening/winter-sowing-plant-now-place-containers-outside-for-spring-germination)
I then planted the seedlings and placed a wood shingle next to each plant for a few days to help protect them from sun at least for a few hours in the afternoon. This helps to ease the transplant shock. This method was learned from my Mom many years ago as wood shingles were common then. They work very well to protect transplanted seedlings.
I then planted a mesculin mix that I had leftover from last year. This is a seed tape which are becoming more popular. They help to keep the planting uniform and are easier to use than loose seeds.
I gave the plants a dose of liquid plant food to help with transplanting process, As mentioned above, i then placed netting over the top (not shown) for protection.
Stay tuned for seedling progress. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. These plants are all cold tolerant and can withstand frost.