Broadcasting seeds

[gone 2 seed]

I was reading in Storey's Basic Country Skills the broadcast method for wide row gardening. I tried this last weekend using green and turnip seeds in my raised bed but it seems like the plants are close together and I am wondering if I should start thining them. They also seem a little leggy is this normal at an early stage?

My spring garden bit the dust and I was hoping to have better luck with my fall garden. I really could not like it if my seed purchases once more cost me more than they saved me.

Thanks

 

[patandchickens]

Sure, thin them down to where they'll grow better. You can eat the thinnings as a salad or snack.

So next time, you can draw on this experience and sow them a bit more thinly to begin with. Unless of course you like snacking on thinnings, which IMO is perfectly legitimate, in which case you've already got the system down


Pat

 

[gone 2 seed]

I did nibble on a few and could taste the mustard greens in the mix. A whilted greens salad sounds like a good way to thin and an added bonus of a good side at the same time.

I love things like greens in salads but my husband is a purist when it comes to his salad.

 

[bills]

The legginess is probably because of the season. I find certain plants start to bolt almost as soon as they come up.

I find with turnip seeds, as the seeds are so large, you can easily space them apart when planting, to save thinning later. Lettuce, carrots, and a few others are too darn small usually, so they always need thinning out. I usually trickle them down along a furrow.

 

[blurose]

When I plant things with tiny, black, nearly no-see-em seeds I mix the seeds with white sand in an old peanut butter jar that I've drilled holes in the lid of. I then "sprinkle" my seeds over the bed. This allows me to see where I'm putting the seeds. I've done this because too many times before ended up with a big clump of seedlings only in one spot because I couldn't see the seeds on the soil.