Seeding the first spring veggies in the field

Since the start of 2025 we have been seeding lots of crops in the greenhouse while keeping an eye towards this week to direct seed in the field.

On Monday we did our first direct seeding of the year into the field of carrots, spinach, arugula, radish, turnips and beets.

We wait until the end of January to do it so that the soil is a little bit warmer and we are out of the Persephone Period which can cause them to bolt before they are ready to harvest.

Over the last four years we have developed a system that helps us get the best possible germination of the direct seeded crops but there is still the chance that the weather can affect them negatively no matter what we do.

Luckily there has been good weather to get into the field to prepare the fields for the seeding and now there is rain forecasted for the weekend.

Right after direct seeding we had to water the area to hep with germination and the rain, if it actually comes, will be helpful as plants and seeds always prefer rain to irrigation.

Seeding in the field does not mean we slow down in the greenhouse as we had a large number of trays to seed this week.

All of our spring planted onions and shallots were seeded on Monday which is large amount. We have some onions we transplant in the fall but those are mainly for eating when harvested or stored for a limited time while these spring planted onions will be stored from when they are harvested until hopefully November when we sell out.

In the spring we seed lettuce every other week in the greenhouse and we did that this week with our eight varieties that we are growing. The first two plantings are growing very well and soon we will start transplanting them in the field.

We’ve been thinking about summer with the tomatoes that have been seeded in the greenhouse and we have added more to look forward to this summer with our first plantings of the peppers and eggplants.

Last year we had mixed results with the peppers due to the weather and animals eating them when they ripened so we’ve made a few changes to the peppers this year as we trial a few new varieties.

One of the varieties of eggplant we have been growing was discontinued and fortunately they replaced it with a variety they say is even better. We will see how it does for us in our unique climate.

Seeding in the field and greenhouse has taken up lots of our time but we are still getting plenty of time to weed and prune the olive trees before there is a chance of rain this weekend.