Cabin Fever

According to the schedule, last week we should have planted spinach, peas and radishes outside. Last year at this time, we had already started spinach and peas outdoors.  Good lesson for gardening (and life, I suppose): every year is different.  The weather has been wildly uncooperative this winter for both gardening and bike commuting.  Here is a picture of our garden as of this morning:

Snow-covered backyard and garden - March 1, 2015

The good news is that we will probably have a shorter wait for peas once we get them outdoors, since this year we started them inside:

Peas: one is already blooming

Last year the peas took 90 days from planting outdoors February 21 until the first harvest. This year, since we planted indoors in January, we should expect to start harvesting about a month earlier or possibly more, since we've given our peas a head start with the artificial lighting and heating pad.

As we wait for the snow to melt and the soil to thaw, we've been busy planting and replanting inside. We moved tomatoes, kale, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers from the small tray to individual pots:

We've planted basil, peppers (cayenne, jalepeño, bell), and eggplant in the small tray over the last few weeks. Once we can move the hardier plants outside we'll transfer the new batch to individual pots and wait for the last frost (around April 10 with 90% likelihood according to the University of Virginia Climatology Office). 

The outlook from the National Weather Service looks promising for above freezing temperatures, if not ideal for biking.  Maybe we'll be able to update next week on outdoor planting.

Alexandria, VA forecast for the week of March 1