Some crops need to be covered and some crops don’t. It would be excellent if all the vegetables in the garden could bask in the sun together, like a picture-perfect postcard. Which would be possible if it weren’t for pests, and the special conditions some need to germinate. Trusty floating row cover is used here to keep flea beetles chewing holes in the brassica mix—flat-leaf kale, mizuna, mustard, bok choi, and their close cousin arugula, to be harvested as baby leaves for salad. Wee tiny carrot seeds need cover to retain the constant moisture in the ground they need to germinate—I’ve been using black landscape fabric, watering through it as need, for about a week. And some veggies, like green beans and beets, haven’t had insect problems, so they don’t need cover. It all depends!
carrots
Carrots front and center
Some of the veggies at today’s farmer’s market. The intense orange of rinsed off carrots tends to really pop, like some sort of neon beacon, especially in the flat light of overcast, grey days. Here they’re flanked by mixed bundles of curly, flat-leaf, and strap kale—the trifecta of kale—flat-leaf parsley, and…beets!