Seedlings Appear!

Spring break has arrived and with it we finally have some decent Texas spring weather.  It was wonderful to work in the garden without wearing my husband’s camo coveralls.  I accomplished a great deal in the garden, but I am most excited about the emergence of a few seedlings.   I have a couple of spinach seedlings peeking their heads above the soil along with one little lonely mesclun seedling.   I also have two sugar snap peas emerging above ground.   Hopefully there will be more seedlings joining them this week as warmer weather is in the forecast.

Spinach Seedling
Emerging on schedule!  Hopefully others will follow!

Sugar Snap Pea Seedling!  Woohoo!

I also noticed that my arugula is flowering.  Since I have never grown arugula before I was surprised.  The temperature has not been out of the 70’s and only that for a day or two.   If you have grown arugula and have any insight you could share I would appreciate experienced advice.  I removed the flowers and other buds hoping to keep it from going to seed early.  I need to do some more research on arugula.  

Dry Soil 

I am having some problems with some of my soil being too dry.  It just will not retain any moisture after a rain or watering.   After making my dirt by Mel's mix recipe, I realized I had not use enough peat moss.  So I added peat moss to some of the 1x1 squares when I planted in them.  I think I may have my compost to peat moss to vermiculite ratio altered.  I am going to try and correct the problem by adding more compost when I replant the summer crops.  The 1x1 squares that have the original Mel's Mix soil seem to hold a little more moisture after watering, but not as much as I would hope.  I tried my best to follow Mel's recipe, but I did some guessing when it came to cubic feet on some of the bags that were sold by weight.