This is going to be a very busy day. Having cleared out the garden of the Spring crops as well the recent trips to gather fertilizer, and plants – things now are all set. All the Vegetable plants and seeds for the Summer season are going in. However, before anything gets set into the ground the garden soil needs to be tended to. This is Part 1 of Summer Planting: Feeding The Garden.
With the garden cleared of the Spring plants we now need to collect the starters and seeds for the crops that will be planted for the Summer. So, a trip out to Kansas City Community Gardens is in order. KCCG is one of only a few gardening organizations in the country with a mission of helping home, community and school gardeners through education, resources and support. They help people all over town grow food for themselves whether it be in a backyard, vacant lot or schoolyard. So, join us for a not-so-faraway road trip to pick-up the summer plants. Here we go!
We take a brief trip out to Missouri Organics for some compost and quickly get back to the garden. These next few days are going to be very, very busy. We will be transitioning the garden from the Spring crops into the Summer plantings. First, however we have to harvest all the beautiful fresh lettuce that has grown throughout the Spring. Low calorie and rich in vitamins and minerals, lettuce is a one of the stars of the vegetable garden. Salads will be plentiful in our diet in the coming days, and we will also be sharing a lot of it.
Thanks, Laurie and Mike
We just harvested enough radishes to fill a streetcar and conviently Mothers Day is upon us. With brunch on the way Laurie decided a fresh quinoa radish salad is the right call. A simple and quick to-make dish that is seasonal and healthy. The silky texture of the grain blended with the soft pepper flavor of the radish and the tart sensation of lemons deliver a complex yet no-non-sense side dish, appropriate for a celebration of everyones’ Mom.
Tax day has now come and gone which for some may have caused a bit of a loss, but for vegetable gardeners it usually marks a time of gain. The Spring growing season is reaching it’s peak and the radish that were planted in mid-March are ready to come out. Harvesting the delicious and healthy radish is always something to look forward to. With the heavy Spring rains they are plump and ready to eat, the rain also softens the ground and helps make this a quick afternoon project. Take a look at our return.
Thanks again for watching,
Laurie and Mike.
Weeding a vegetable garden is often the last thing a gardener would like to do. This is exactly what happens in this episode. Maybe not the most spellbinding story, yet weeding and thinning a vegetable garden is one of the best things a gardener can do to maximize the yield and health of the plants. It does not have to take up too much time but really, time is what a garden marks. The radish and lettuce were planted just a few weeks ago and already we are counting the days until we can prepare a fresh salad. Enjoy the time crawling among your plants — weeding or not.
We visit the gardens and orchard of Kansas City’s Metro Luthern Ministry. MLM has for years been focused on helping to meet the needs that poverty brings. From home repairs, to housing, to financial literacy and to, in this case, food and community. MLM has also been instrumental in creating many organizations that help in caring for and building our community. Harvesters Food Bank is one major example and the other is Kansas City Community Gardens. Here we discover Metro Luthern Ministry’s pantry garden, a large community garden and the orchard.
The first seeds to go into the ground are always the lettuce and radish. They are easily placed in the soil and love the early cool Spring air and rain. This finishes up a morning of getting the garden growing, and we welcome all that this small patch of ground will bring to us in the coming weeks and months.
Just before St. Patrick’s Day is the best time to get potatoes in the ground. That is just what we do as well as some simple preparation for the lettuce and radishes that will follow. Warm Spring weather is arriving quickly but the potatoes, once in the ground, are really suited for whatever nature throws at them including a last frost.
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