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Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard

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of gardening simple, fun and always
rewarding. Now Here are your hosts,

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Jim and Mary Competiti. Hello and
welcome everybody to Simple Garden Life. I'm

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your host, Jim Competti, along
with my wife Mary. And Mary the

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garden season has begun, because we're
talking today about starting early spring crops.

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That's always like one of our favorite
times. You can get out there.

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You're not planting those tomatoes yet,
but you can certainly plant a lot of

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things early on depending on where you
live, and get growing fast. Anytime

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I can get in the garden,
I'm happy. That's right. That's right.

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Well, you know, gardening is
really more seasonal than anything. I

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mean, you know, we talk
about the short window of time that you

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have to grow your plants, and
it's so good in the early spring to

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get started. I think for me, I always think of one crop and

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we're going to cover that today,
which is sugar Snappie's my absolute favorite,

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and really you need to get them
in the ground early. We'll get to

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that in a second, but I
think Mary, most of the sugar snappis

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you plant for the first round don't
even make it out of the garden.

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Now we eat them straight out of
the garden. I just pick an eat

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as we go, and then we
eventually get some crops exactly. So hey,

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let's talk about a few things.
If you have any questions, we

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want to have some topics for us. You can reach us always at the

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farm at Owgarden dot com. You
can sign up to follow us at Simple

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gardenlife dot com and follow along on
Facebook or your favorite podcast app. You

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know. You can also follow us
on Instagram. Now we're starting to get

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much more active on Instagram, posting
a lot from the new farm and what

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we're doing here. And it's really
an exciting year for us. We got

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the test garden almost complete, a
lot of videos now on our YouTube channel

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as well at Old World Garden Farm, and I'll tell you it's really going

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to be a fun year, right
And if you want to follow us on

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Instagram, look up Old World Garden
you'll find us there. You'll find us

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our videos. We put little step
shops of helpful tips in our garden and

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things that we do throughout the week. All right, so let's get into

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this today. We're going to cover
six crops that you can get started early,

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and by early, we're saying that, you know, a lot of

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times we can't plant things until the
thread of frost is over. For us

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here in Ohio that's really around May
twenty fifth in our zone. Sometimes we

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can get away a little bit earlier, a little bit later, or you

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want warm soil to really help those
crops. But today, what we're talking

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about our seed crops that can go
in the ground while there's still a thread

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of frost because they're going to come
up through and they can handle a little

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cold and you can get them in
depending on where you live, like for

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us now we're talking mid April,
we can start to plant now, right,

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we're talking about you know, those
sea crops that you can put in

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the ground once the soil is able
to be worked, it's no longer frozen,

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it's warm enough that you can raak
back the soil, raak back your

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cover crop if you used one.
It's one of those things. We're not

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talking transplants, we're talking seed crops. Yeah, absolutely, So let's get

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right into it. I've already kind
of talked about the first one we're going

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to go to, so we'll get
right to that, and sugar snap peas

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one of my favorite, whether there's
snow peas or sugar snap peas, the

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crispy crunch you get. But it's
a crop that you really do need to

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plan early because it's gonna bolt once
that heat comes. Right. It's not

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one that likes the sun like most
of us. It likes the cooler weather.

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So you can plant it in early
spring, or you can plant it

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in late summer for a fall crop. Yeah, your soil really needs to

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be around, you know, forty
five to fifty degrees to be able to

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handle sugar snappiece for them to germinate, and you can get out there.

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Once it gets above that eighty degree
mark, you'll see those peas start to

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fall off and you have to wait
again until fall to plant them again.

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But such an easy crop to plant. You know what about two to three

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weeks really before your last frost when
you can get them in the ground right.

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And the best thing about planting sugar
snap piece is that this actual seed

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is a shriveled up pea, so
they're easy to handle. They're easy to

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plant, yeah, and they'll usually
come up if the soil is decent enough

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in about seven to ten days.
You know, we like to plant a

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couple rows and then about a week
or two later plant a couple more.

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A little bit of succession, you
can get a little bit more from your

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spring crop. But Mary, I
think the most thing to tell people is

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you have to have some type of
a support system for this crop. Right,

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there are ones that grow up and
tall, so I would say they'd

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get about four feet tall. So
you need to have a trellis or a

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fence or something that they can climb. Yeah, so what we use.

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We use a couple of metal tea
steaks, almost the same thing for our

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steak at cage, but we just
drive them in the ground deep and then

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we take a big long cattle panel, put it between them, cut them

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to size, and we grow on
either side of that. It really is

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an easy way. They trail us
right up. They have the tendles that

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come out right and grab that and
they're going to go right up it.

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So, Mary, let's talk about
how you plant this. It's a pretty

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easy crop, right. You just
want to plant the seeds about one inch

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deep, cover them with soil,
leave about eighteen inches between the rows,

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and then water them. Well,
if you don't get enough rain. Yeah,

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and about what every two to three
inches, space your seeds and make

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you can play them a little closer
and then if you want to. But

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they're pretty good germaning, we like
to do about I'd say two inches is

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what we probably use. Yeah,
i'd say between one and two inches.

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You know, we're always stingy.
You want to get the most fur our

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buck that's right. And then finally
put a little multi on right away.

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You know, just about an inch. You can use straw, some clippings,

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but that's going to keep any weeds
from coming out. It'll still come

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through a small layer of mulch.
And then once they start to grow,

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we thicken our mulch up underneath.
Yeah, you want a thin layer of

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mulch so that the ceilings can pop
through the ground. But it's important to

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get that ground covered so that way
they don't get the weeds coming through.

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And then you don't know what is
a weed and what is a sugar snap

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pea. Yeah, and look,
they need some moisture, so that mulch

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helps keep the moisture in, so
water them. If you're not getting water,

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springtime's usually not an issue. You're
getting enough rain to to really work.

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So that's number one. Number two
on the list is another one of

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my favorites, and that's radishes.
Oh, there's so many kinds of great

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radish you can grow. Don't don't
just think of that simple red radish,

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which, hey, that's pretty darn
good. But you have watermelon rashes,

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all kinds, if you have French
breakfast, from mild to extra spicy.

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So you know, get out there
and get some different seeds and plant them.

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They're a super fast crop. We
actually plant our radish seeds right in

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the same bed as we plant our
sugar snap peas. Yeah, they're great

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companions. They're absolutely great companions.
And you know, again you can plant

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them early in the year. They're
going to grow fast. Some radishes,

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you know, they can be harvested
in as little as twenty eight to thirty

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five days as baby radishes. They're
fast growing, and you don't want to

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let them get too big anyway because
then they get kind of woody. Yeah,

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exactly, and they're not that good. So when it comes to radishes,

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you know, they're a thin crop
about a half inch deep is what

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you're looking to plant for Again,
about four to six weeks before your last

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spring spring frost date, which is
like perfect right now, they're going to

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come up. Spacing is always difficult
with radishes because there's such a tiny seed.

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They are a tiny seed, and
you'll plant a bunch and they'll all

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gather together in certain areas. And
this is a crop that you really do

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need to thin. And as much
as I hate thinning crops and throwing throwing

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seedlings away, this is one that
you have to do otherwise the radishes will

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wrap around each other, won't produce. Yeah, I laugh at this because

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Mary cannot kill any seed seeds.
She hates doing it. Early on,

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we would plant carrot seeds and I
would say, hey, have you thin

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those? I can't, and then
we would end up with tangled carrots.

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So she has done a really good
job. I would try to replant them

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exactly so she's right though, Plan
them about a half inch to an inch,

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but you gotta let them have the
room depending on the variety. If

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it's a larger radish, you know, plan them a little bit separate or

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thin separately to that um As I
said, they'll germinate fast three to four

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days and then after a few inches
tall, that's when you can start thinning

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and really you can harvest any time
you want after that twenty five to twenty

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eight days because they're just gonna be
baby. They'll be tender. But you

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know, the more you let in
the ground, the longer they're going to

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grow. And with all of our
seedling crops, you always want to cover

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the ground after you plan them in
with a light layer of multure stroll or

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something so that way the weed seeds
can't get in. Yep, another cool

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weather crops. So we've talked about
sugar snappeas and snowpeas, and we've talked

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about radishes, and now it's spinach. Something as a child I absolutely despise

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and as an adult I absolutely love. Can't figure that I just like fresh.

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I'm still going to say it's probably
the Popeye can got fetish that we

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didn't like. We absolutely love spinach
now. Yeah, so it thrives in

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cool weather thirty five to seventy degrees. As soon as the soil can be

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worked, you can really get spinach
in. It can even go in earlier

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than some of these other ones.
We put ours in all about the same

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time, just because it's really the
first time we can work their garden when

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you get into April. But this
is another great plant to do succession planning

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with. So I you know I
have a tennessee, I'll plant two rows

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of spinach. I write down the
date. I go back two weeks later

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plant another row of spinach. So
that way we have a fresh supply of

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Spanish all the time. Absolutely,
so to plant this, you just want

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to do some long trenches or some
short trenches, however you want to do

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it, but short and thin.
I mean a half inch to a quarter

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inch deep. We like to put
a little compost in that in that row,

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and then put the seeds down in
it your row. For spacing,

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you want about a foot apart,
you know, if you're doing rows there,

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put it into the trench, cover
with soil and water. Well,

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I mean spinach is going to germinate
fast five to ten days, and once

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they've grown to a few inches tall
again, you're gonna thin to you know,

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I say three to five inches,
it can be four to six just

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depends are you going to have them
as baby you know Spanish, because that

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I keep them close right. If
there's baby spinash, I really don't think

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them a whole lot. But if
you're really harvesting for larger leaves. You

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do want to thin so they have
an extra room to grow. Yeah,

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spinish can be harvested four to six
weeks after planning, and you want to

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start with those outer leaves first because
they're going to be the oldest leaves and

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I gotta tall. Spinach is one
thing you really do need to harvest it

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at the younger side. It just
it doesn't have the same flavor when it

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gets more tender. And you know, the big thing about spinach is that

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again they don't like summer. Spinach
leaves do not like summer, so they're

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going to bolt quickly, if you
know. That's why it's important to get

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in the ground now so you can't
harvest it in you know, late spring,

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early summer, and then again you
can plant another crop in late summer

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for a fall harvest. Yeah,
and you're gonna know when it bowls because

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you're gonna taste it and you're gonna
be like, yep, it's it's done,

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and you take it out. We
put it, we used to feed

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it to our chickens. Sometimes we'll
put it in our compost flowers developing and

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that's the time, you know,
that's over. That's right. That's right.

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So okay, I'll tell you what
we've done three. We're gonna take

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a break right now and we're gonna
be back with the question of the week

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and we'll finish with our other three
crops that you can get growing early this

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year. And we are back.
Let's get right to the question of the

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week. Mary. We're talking spring
seed crops that you can get in the

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ground early. And what is our
question this week? I gotta tell you

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did this one so I don't even
know what the question is. You know,

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we get a lot of questions,
so this one was perfect. This

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is from Nina Kirkpatrick from Rochester,
New York. I live where the weather

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can shift significantly day to day in
the spring. One day it'll be eighty

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degrees in at the end of March, and by the first week of April

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we're back in the mid thirties at
night. Should I plant my seed crops

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or wait until the temperature is guaranteed
to be above forty degrees every night?

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Great questions? Ever guarantee? No, there's never a guarantee, And it's

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a great question because it does happen. I mean, we joke about it

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in Ohio, like, wait ten
minutes. But as we've traveled, we

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figured every state, wait ten minutes, the weather will change, and Nina,

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it's probably that way in New York
as well. But here's the thing.

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It's really about the soil and the
warmth of the soil. If you've

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just come off a sixteen inch snowfall
and it's bitter cold, I'd wait a

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few days until that soil warms up. But once you get into those normal

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days, look seeds in the ground. One thirty degree night or even one

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twenty degree night is not going to
affect them that much. You just want

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to be in a pattern where it's
okay, it's going to happen. Okay,

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I can tell you just this past
week, we had some incredible early

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spring weather and within two hours the
temperature drop thirty five to forty degrees and

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I'm back in sweatshirts and sweats I
think we were in shorts and T shirts

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this morning and now in sweatshirts.
But it's not going to hurt sea crops

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in the ground. Soil is slow
to heat or to freeze, So I

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mean, there's no guarantees, But
what what you really want to do is

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just wait until that temperature is warmed
up a little bit. I always like

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to see a week of fifties sixties, you know, and then you think,

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okay, the soil is warmed a
little bit, we can start getting

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these seed crops in. Hello.
The crops can handle some frost. Not

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all of them, but some of
them can. It's just the hard freezes

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that really hurt and hinder these these
crops that we're talking about today. Yeah,

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absolutely, great question, Nina.
So let's get to it. We've

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got three, la. Let's start
with spring onions. Ah. They're one

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of my favorites. I used to
sneak into my parents' garden as a kid

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and pull them out and take them
in and wash them off and eat them.

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Probably rotting myself out right now about
that, But it's okay. They

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are so easy exactly. They're so
easy to plant. You can do them

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from little balls, or you can
do them from seeds. I'm a big

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ball guy. Seeds. It's just
my hands are too big. I have

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to struggle and they take so hard
to thin. But you know you're gonna

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be pulling these up early for green
onions, right, and you know I

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prefer the seed at this point,
because you know, I'm basically using the

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spring onions, and sometimes we call
them green onions. I use them for

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cooking all the time, and honestly
I use more of the green part than

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I do the white part of my
cooking. Yeah, that's true. Well,

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you want to sow these seeds a
few weeks before your last frost,

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kind of like the others here quarter
inch apart. You want to thin the

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seedlings to about three quarters of inch
if you're going to be harvesting him as

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green onions. Now, if you're
gonna let them in the ground to grow

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as bigger onions about two inches apart, you're gonna thin two. But we're

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talking spring onions here, So I
like keeping them close and you can harvest

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them, you know, regularly.
Again, another great crop to secession plant.

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If you're going to continue to get
spring onions, absolutely, and you

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can let your spring onions grow up
to beat like you said, the larger

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onions. Yes, when I'm growing, you know, for big onions to

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cut and slice and put on hamburgers, definitely, for the sets are the

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way to go in my opinion.
However, the spring onions, the seeds,

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they'll grow nice and thin, nice
and tall. You can slice the

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dice them and you don't have the
big bulb to worry about at the end.

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It's very so nice. She says
things like, in my opinion,

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she is absolutely one correct. If
you're trying to grow bigger onions, there's

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a couple secrets. Number one is
always start with sets, because you're going

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to get a bigger onion. And
always if you're in an environment where you

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can try to get them in in
the fall and let them come back in

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the spring because they're going to grow
to a bigger onion. Hey, seeds

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are great. You can make sets
from seeds. Seeds are great for the

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spring onions. I agree with you
there. They are a nice choice.

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But if you're trying to grow big
onions, yeah, bulbs are the way

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to go. So that's actually our
number seven plant to crop in the spring

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or actually this yeah, there you
go, there you go. So okay,

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So we've done spring onions. We've
talked about spinach, we've talked about

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00:14:05,919 --> 00:14:09,480
radishes, and we've talked about sugar
snappeas let's get into the next one,

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00:14:09,519 --> 00:14:11,919
which, boy, it covers a
lot here. But we're talking about lettuce

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00:14:11,919 --> 00:14:16,919
and you can talk about, you
know, bib lettuce, leaf lettuce,

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00:14:16,519 --> 00:14:20,320
lettuce. Yeah, but it's such
a great thing to get in seeds early

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00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:22,600
in the year because lettuce is another
crop that once it gets hot, you're

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00:14:22,639 --> 00:14:26,679
gonna have trouble growing it. This
is a tricky one though. Lettuce is

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00:14:26,159 --> 00:14:31,879
one that sometimes needs warmer weather to
get started. But you're right, it's

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00:14:31,879 --> 00:14:35,320
a very short period of If it
gets too hot, they won't grow at

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00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:37,879
all. But if it's not cool
enough, they won't grow either. So

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00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:41,279
it's a little tricky one. We
like to put them in early. You

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00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:43,559
know, there's one that you just
keep putting in the ground so you can

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00:14:43,559 --> 00:14:45,960
see what happens. Yeah, and
you can cover it. That's it's an

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00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,159
easy thing to cover if you're going
to have an especially cold night. A

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00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:50,679
quarter inch deep is all you got
to play in them. The big thing

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00:14:50,679 --> 00:14:56,039
with lettuces, make sure that soil
is really rich and loose. Add lots

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00:14:56,039 --> 00:14:58,440
of compost, you know, really
mix the soil up. That's what it's

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00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:03,679
going to help let us grow.
And again you want to cover that if

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00:15:03,679 --> 00:15:07,440
it's going to have a really cold
night. Lettuce is not like spinach.

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00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:11,360
You can't handle the cold cold.
But it's an easy crop to start early,

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00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:13,759
and you can usually get it pretty
quickly and you can harvest it very

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00:15:13,759 --> 00:15:18,039
early. The thing I love about
planning lettuce is that once you harvest it,

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00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:20,159
you can cut it off. It
actually regrows, so you can harvest

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00:15:20,159 --> 00:15:24,000
it several a lot of varieties.
You can harvest several times over and over

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00:15:24,039 --> 00:15:26,639
again. Yeah, and you'll again
kind of like we talked about earlier,

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00:15:26,639 --> 00:15:28,200
you'll know when it gets too bitter
later on. But Mary's right, you

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00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:33,720
can get a good at least two
usually three to four before it starts to

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00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:37,440
go a little bit bad. But
just get started with It's just so fun.

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00:15:37,519 --> 00:15:39,559
And you know what, if you
don't have garden space right now,

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00:15:39,799 --> 00:15:41,919
lettuce is one you can grow in
pots. We take some of your pots

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00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:45,559
that you're going to plant in a
few weeks or a month or so and

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00:15:46,039 --> 00:15:48,879
fill them with lettuce at any point
where you can roll them inside if it's

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00:15:48,879 --> 00:15:52,480
gonna get cold. But there's nothing
like harvest in that first salad from your

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00:15:52,480 --> 00:15:54,799
own growing right And you know,
one another thing I like about let us

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00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:58,960
is it I don't have to thin
the lettuce. I plan them in bunches

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00:15:58,039 --> 00:16:00,320
and then that way they can grow
and they grow together, and I can

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00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:03,720
cut and I don't have to worry
about thinning them out and throwing them away.

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00:16:03,799 --> 00:16:07,639
Yeah, that's true. That's very
true. So okay, final one,

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00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:11,519
unless you count the bonus onion sets, We're going to talk about the

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00:16:11,559 --> 00:16:14,679
one crop that absolutely loves cold weather
and you can get it in and it's

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00:16:14,679 --> 00:16:17,720
going to be able to handle some
cold weather. And that's kale. Kale

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00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:22,000
as a monster when it comes in. Fact, cold weather actually improves its

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00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:23,440
flavor, right, it does.
And you know, Kale's one of those

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00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:27,879
crops for us that it lasts all
season long. It never bolts if we

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00:16:27,919 --> 00:16:32,000
cut it. It lasts all season
here in Ohio, and I don't I'm

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00:16:32,039 --> 00:16:33,840
not sure why either, but it
does. You're absolutely right. But you

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00:16:33,879 --> 00:16:37,799
can sew it about four weeks before
your area's last frost date. It's gonna

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00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:41,120
come up. We've we've grown the
white Russian variety. I like that a

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00:16:41,159 --> 00:16:45,879
lot. There's so many varieties of
great tasting kale. It's a fast grower.

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00:16:45,919 --> 00:16:47,919
That's what I like about white Russian
with you know, it's got the

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00:16:47,919 --> 00:16:51,879
baby leaves that are ready for harvesting. Gosh, twenty five days, right,

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00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:53,799
they grow quickly, and you know, you can harvest the big leaves

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00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:56,279
to do other things with and you
know, remove the stem to cook with.

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00:16:56,559 --> 00:17:00,840
But those baby leaves, there's nothing
more tender than baby kale. No,

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00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:03,720
it really is. And for bigger
leaves, you're talking about the fifty

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00:17:03,799 --> 00:17:07,720
day mark, so still under two
months, and you're beating that summer if

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00:17:07,759 --> 00:17:11,680
you use a lot of kale as
another succession plant. I always like.

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00:17:11,839 --> 00:17:15,839
Also, fall kale is wonderful because
you plant it, it comes up fast,

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00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:18,680
it grows, and then you get
that cold snap of weather that just

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00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:22,160
improves that flavor, makes it really
really good. And kales really, you

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00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:25,079
know, it's a very tolerant to
cold weather. So in the fall it's

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00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:27,079
it's a really good crop to plant
because it does last. Yeah. So

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00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:30,400
there we got there, We have
it. We covered our six crops with

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00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:33,559
the bonus onion sets. But I
do want to go into one more thing

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00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:40,200
is we talk about this sometimes on
the show before, but don't be taken

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00:17:40,279 --> 00:17:41,839
when you go out. Now.
I went out today and we saw all

319
00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:47,200
of these annuals out and all of
these vegetable plants out ready, those are

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00:17:47,359 --> 00:17:49,960
not what we're talking about. If
you have frost dates that are not past.

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00:17:51,079 --> 00:17:53,200
You do not behind them unless you're
going to keep them in your house.

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00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:57,319
And that's a great thing to get
good selection. But they should not

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00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:00,759
be planted right now. It's something
store have done more and more in the

324
00:18:00,799 --> 00:18:04,240
last ten years. It's probably a
pet peeve of mine. But those are

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00:18:04,279 --> 00:18:07,200
not what we're talking about today.
You've got to wait until that soil worms

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00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:12,440
for tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers go
down the list. You can't be putting

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00:18:12,440 --> 00:18:15,480
those in the ground yet unless you
live in an area where your temperatures are

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00:18:15,519 --> 00:18:18,839
already past the frostede. I guess
the big point here is just because they're

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00:18:18,839 --> 00:18:22,400
out in the stores doesn't mean that
you can plant them. That's right,

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00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:25,319
That's right, So just remember that. But hey, get those seeds,

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00:18:25,559 --> 00:18:29,279
get out there, get these six
crops in and start enjoying gardening. It

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00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:32,440
really garden season. Yeah it is. It's garden season and gets you going.

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00:18:32,559 --> 00:18:34,920
So I think that about doesn't Marry, I'm ready for the big line

334
00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:37,839
here. All right, Here we
go, and remember whatever you do,

335
00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:41,880
find the fun and gardening and grow
something beautiful. All right, everybody,

336
00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:45,359
have a wonderful day and happy gardening. We hope you've enjoyed this episode.

337
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:49,839
Subscribe to the Simple Garden podcast on
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338
00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:53,319
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339
00:18:53,359 --> 00:18:56,440
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and read all of the show notes to

340
00:18:56,519 --> 00:19:00,759
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341
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:03,960
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00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:08,400
farm at owgarden dot com. Until
next time, Thanks everyone,