Gearing up for the big farming weekend

Memorial Day weekend is upon us!  This has traditionally been our big planting weekend to get everything out in the garden.  It's supposed to be a wet weekend, but I think we'll go ahead with most of the planting anyway.  I have the eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, flowers, and tomatoes and Chinese broccoli (these last two from my friends - it's so nice to have others to swap with!), all out in the cold frames.  They haven't really been hardening off much out there since it's been so wet and dreary and the frames have mostly stayed closed, but this still is more of a hardening off effort than I've made in either of the past two years.

The seeds that we directly sowed in the garden are doing really well, for the most part.  My strawberry spinach didn't germinate at all, which was disapointing but probably inevitable since the seed packet was quite clear that they needed to stay moist, and I neglected to water (and the skies neglected to rain - I'm willing to share the blame here).  But my arugula, beets, turnips, radishes, lettuce, regular spinach, peas (snap and shelling), shallots, garlic, scallions, and carrots and parsnips are all coming up.  The kale is a little iffy, I think I'll direct seed some more with the chard this weekend.

I'm hoping to hit up the farmer's market tomorrow to round out my seedlings, but if it's a total downpour, I may just go to Skillins on Sunday and hope that they have everything I need.  It was great to do a mini seedling swap with a few of my friends, and now I just need:

5-7 more tomato plants (mostly paste, with 1-2 more cherry/slicing if there are cool varieties available)
peppers (3 bell peppers, 3 jalapenos, 2 poblanos)
Herbs for the cold frame (rosemary, thyme, oregano, chives, parsley)
Herbs for the herb bed (parsley)

And now, pictures!

My lovely new coldframe!

Romanesco (back left), cauliflower, fennel and tomato seedlings in the coldframe 5/20/2013

Basil, nasturtium, and eggplant seedlings in the coldframe 5/20/2013