Growing spring vegetables

Despite the cool, wet weather, the spring vegetables were done by early July. The snap peas grew so tall they toppled over. The lettuce, mesclun and mache went to seed.

We've pulled the first round of carrots planted April 5th and ready from 11-13 weeks. There is a second crop of carrots still growing.

I've pulled the snap peas and lettuces. I've replaced the mache with parsnips planted July 3rd, and the snap peas with swiss chard. I'm leaving the lettuce section free to replant with lettuce in late August.

Growing mache from seed

Mache is a delicate, sweet green sometimes called "lambs lettuce". The mature heads are only about 2 inches across. This mache was direct sowed in the garden April 5th. At 8.5 weeks it is ready to be eaten. The problem is that not a lot of it grew from my seeds. I did not get enough mache from my 36"x18" plot to make a full salad, but I'll still enjoy the little bit that I got! If the mache had grown thickly in this area, I would have gotten several salad.

Mache is a cool weather plant and it's thriving in this cool June weather, but as soon as the days turn hot, I will pull the mache and replant with something else for the summer. I'll give the mache another go in the fall!

Mache at 8 weeks

The mache started inside March 15th are still several weeks from being big enough to eat. The mache direct sowed 5 weeks ago are still tiny, and they came up very unevenly. I resowed the bare patches yesterday.