New Herb & Vegetable Garden Beds

This Spring I completely updated all of my kitchen garden beds here at the Hartstone Inn. I planted my early spring seeds (red oak lettuce, lolla rossa, mache, mesclun, radish, beets, carrots, chervil, chives and Italian parsley) on April 15th in new raised beds, using the "Square Foot Garden" technique. I made the beds using small tree saplings, weaving the thinner trees in and out of stakes made from the larger saplings. The design for the planters came from some beds I encountered in the Loire region of France this past winter. The plants seem very happy in their new home and the comments from the guests have been pouring in. Last week I planted my garden bed behind the barn and sowed pumpkins, fennel, nasturtiums, bachelor buttons and dill seeds in addition to more of the seeds listed above. My first harvest of rhubarb took place last week, chives have been making their way to the dinner plates all week and the first batch of radishes should be ready in 3-4 days. The joys we get from our Spring gardens!