The Official Start of Gardening Season

I've had seeds started indoors since the beginning of March (Napa cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, swiss chard, lettuce, cantaloupe, watermelon, and cucumber) but yesterday felt like the official start of the vegetable garden for this year. 

We went up to Ryan's (because that's where our garden is due to untreatable fungus in NJ) yesterday, John rototilled, remarked how nice the soil was, and planted seeds in that soil. 

We added some extra topsoil to the garden from the drainage and grade improvement project that we finished last fall, so hopefully, that extra topsoil will help things grow. 

John planted snow peas, spinach, turnips, carrots, and Swiss chard in the garden. They all got a thorough watering, but I predict John will have to ask Ryan to water them again later in the week. We have mid-80s predicted for Thursday and Friday, but no chance of rain until at least next Monday. The life of a gardener is closely associated with temperature and precipitation! I'm always grateful that we're not growing vegetables for a livelihood and can buy them at the grocery store if necessary. John's attitude isn't quite so dismissive; he expects the weather to cooperate because he has planted his garden. I told him that "What will pea will pea" but he didn't seem to appreciate that at all. 

Just like he doesn't appreciate the rabbit that lives under Ryan's shed and dared to come out several times to see what delicious things we were planting for him to nibble on. But we've officially started our gardening season and will just have to fight our battles with temperature, precipitation, and rabbits, and see who will be victorious.