Today after Bruce, the 3G Network, and I finished our cold 5:30 am walk around the neighborhood, I decided to check out the Urban Farm.

Partially inspired by an end of day conversation with a straw bale gardening coworker (hi Julia) and her tomato and pepper plants, I pulled out a flashlight to see how the seeds planted on February 18 are doing.

We’ve had weird, wildly changeable weather with rain, warmth, cold, high winds so honestly, my expectations were low. I thought everything would be a week behind or so.

Wrong!

I was pleasantly surprised to find sprouts in stock tank 2–red velvet lettuce (lactuca sativa). This heirloom variety will take 55 days to grow and promises sweet and tender beautiful wine-red leaves that will “make any salad memorable.”

I’m officially looking forward to that memorable salad. And to see what plants pop up over the coming days. I wonder what will be next…

(Tomatoes are going in the ground this weekend!)

Happy 2013 spring garden, y’all!

UPDATE: Once the sun came up, I watered everything and found a radish sprout, a mache sprout, and a pea sprout. So plenty is happening in the Urban Farm.

PS: special thank you to Bruce for getting solar lights for around the urban farm. I really didn’t need to use the flashlight once I got over to the beds.