I have:

- peas that just popped out of the ground
- white onions from sets sprouting
- yellow onion sets just planted (cats keep digging- argh)
- green onions from seed (not doing so well)
- carrots and beets direct sowed this past week
- spinach, lettuce, mustard greens sprouted in fish boxes

Fish boxes are my new favorite thing. I get them free from a fishmonger - big stryofoam boxes for shipping fish. I rinse them out, punch holes in the bottoms with a screwdriver, fill them with sterile soil mix, and sow greens and other shallow-rooted things. Last year, I lost all my greens to slugs, rabbits, and other critters. This year, I set the fish boxes up off the ground on milk crates. So far, so good.

I also have a bunch of herbs planted in "hot houses" made out of gallon milk jugs. I meant to actually winter-sow in them earlier, but got busy. Now I am just using them to speed up the season a bit.

Planting this week: parsnips and potatoes. I had some Red Pontiac seed potatoes, but I cut them in pieces and then forgot to plant them - they dried out completely. I need to go get some more. I want to try building a potato tower out of old tires. I have sprouting sweet potatoes ready to plant - in a 5 gallon bucker this year.

Also planning a parsnip experiment. They are hard to transplant, but I don't have the bed ready. I saw where a British gardener starts them in toilet paper cores, then successfully slips them into the ground later. I am going to try that, to give myself time to do more soil prep.

Sounds like you're well on your way :o) Let me know how your fish boxes go. My only concern with that would be extra watering since they're above ground. I ordered a bunch of potatoes online this year and they should be arriving this week. I have carrot seed, I just wondered if I should wait until the next few days are over (it shows lows close to freezing)

I thought the extra watering was an acceptable trade-off to keep the critters from eating my stuff before I did. The lettuces will be gone by the time summer really gets hot. I can use the boxes again to start new stuff for succession planting (theoretically). They are easier to drape with row cover than a ground-level patch, too. I might buy some broccoli or kale transplants and see if I can get to survive the slug/bug onslaught.

I have carrots and beets in the ground, but no germination yet. The green onions did sprout this weekend. Took a little longer than expected, and I thought they were not going to appear.

I am miles ahead of where I was last year - I barely got things in the ground by Mother's Day

Oh, I understand why you need the boxes. Sometimes you haveto do whatever it takes to get your crop. We ended up buying some broccoli and cauliflower yesterday, but taking it in and out of the garage the next couple days until the lows are back in the 40s. I'm going to try and be good about my carrots this year. I always get to lax on the thinning and end up with small ones because of it. I'll have to figure out an easy way to space them out right away without taking a month to plant a row.

So far I have peas and radishes already up. Radishe are just started the first real set of leaves. The peas are about an inch or two tall. Both were planted at the begininng of March.
Brocolini will go out this weekend. It could have gone out sooner, but I have been behind with other chores aropund the house to get them hardened off.
Lettuce (buttercrunch and simpson black) both got direct sowed this week.

I have zuk, summer squash, peppers (hot and sweet), Cuks and stawberries (from seed) ready to go out as soon as we stop getting these frosts. Stawberries would be fine but Ive been too busy to get the beds ready.

Nick, if you happen to check back here: one way to help spacing carrots is to mix in radish seed. The radishes are up fast (which helps if soil tends to crust) and make row easy to see. As you harvest the radishes, that helps space carrots. Another way is to mix sand with the carrot seed to help a little on spacing.

Thanks paveggie,
I haven't had a chance to plant the carrots yet. I think I'll give the sand mixing a try.
My peas are just starting to poke out of the ground now. They could really use some rain, its clouding up here, but nothing yet. Do you think I'm being too optimistic that we might be done with frost for the year. It is dipping down to the mid-thirties next week, but then its back to lows in the 40s...I hope we're in the clear!

I noticed someone mentioned sweet potatoes- Has anyone been successful in growing them? Any tips on what to do? I have a few sprouting sweet potatoes that I would like to try to multiply in my small cultivating plot. Thanks.