Winter Vegetable Garden

Three weeks ago now, I got the lower bed seeded with the winter veg.  This is the first season that we haven't planted both beds at the same time; we are officially "experimenting"  - in the effort to learn to stagger our crops, to know more about which perennials we can leave in the ground from season to season, and to figure out just what we can do in the space we have. So the eggplants and peppers stayed put in the upper bed and I planted bits and pieces around them.  The lower bed got the full-on, seed sowing treatment.  Mainly, I used standard row planting - short rows that cut vertically along the long bed.  I did break a little from the seed-packet recommendations though, and set my rows closer together - about 12 inches apart, as opposed to 24 to 32 inches.  I could just be shooting my cabbages in the foot (or is it shooting my cabbages in the head?) trying to squeeze more out of the space.  We'll see.

Here's what I sowed:

• Upper Bed
• 1 row Butter lettuce  (Renee's Garden)
• 1 small patch Common arugula  (Seed Savers)
• Along the length of the lower bed
• 4 Copenhagen Market cabbages  (Seed Savers)
• 4 Mammoth Red Rock cabbages  (Seed Savers)
• 4 Early Snowball cauliflower  (Seed Savers)
• Starting from the north end of the lower bed
• 1 row heirloom shelling peas  (Renee's Garden)
• 1 row Tonda di Parigi carrots  (Renee's Garden) & French Breakfast radishes  (Seed Savers)
• 1 row De Cicco broccoli  (Seed Savers)
• 1 row Cosmic Purple carrots  (Renee's Garden) & Watermelon radishes  (Renee's Garden)
• 1 row Chef's Choice cauliflower, mixed colors  (Renee's Garden)
• 1 row Purplette mini onions  (Huntington)
  
• 1 row Purple Top White Globe turnips  (Seed Savers)
• 1 row Romanesco broccoli  (Seed Savers)
• 1 row Cipollini onions  (Huntington)
• 1 row Cylindria beets & Burpee's Golden beets  (both Seed Savers)
• 1 row Five Color silverbeet  (Seed Savers)
• 1 row Bull's Blood beets & Chioggia beets  (both Seed Savers)
• 1 row Sunshine carrots  (Renee's Garden)
• 1 row Pigeon peas  (from Irma)
• Herb Garden
• Italian Large Leaf Basil  (Armstrong's seedling)
• Coriander  (Armstrong's seedling)
• Curled Chervil  (Armstrong's seedling)
• Italian Parsley  (Armstrong's seedling)
• Florence fennel  (Renee's Garden)
  
• Nasturtium  (Burpee's)