More broccoli

The last couple of posts showed the tail end of this past spring's broccoli planting, which suffered a lot of hits from rabbits, and then a teaser of what's protecting what I hope will be a much more successful fall/winter harvest.  Here's more of the bed that Doogie was standing outside of:

This bed is pretty much divided into two plantings.  The lower half in the picture was planted a couple weeks ago, after that part of the bed was cleared of onions.  I alternated rows (left-to-right) of broccoli and Asian greens.  Yes, they're jam-packed in there, but the Asian greens will come out much sooner than the broccoli, plus the broccoli should grow up and over any remaining Asian greens.

The top half of the bed in the above picture was planted about a week later - same type of stuff, but there were bush beans in place that I was still harvesting from.

The broccolis in the above picture are from the Year Round Sprouting Blend from Territorial Seed - my first time trying this.  I received a small manila pocket-sized envelope containing four slightly smaller manila envelopes inside.  Each had a colored dot on it, which you matched up with the catalog letting you know what order they should be harvested in.  Surprisingly, there isn't much info on their website on this one, but basically you plant all the different stages at the same time, and their harvesting times should be staggered.  I'm pretty certain the seeds in each envelope were a mix of sprouting broccolis, and that packet's plants should all be ready to harvest around the same time.  So my earliest harvest should come from the bottom row in the above pic, then second round of harvest should be the next row up, etc - with those harvesting last at the top of the pic.

Now I expect the plants will probably do their own thing to some extent, most likely providing some overlap....we'll see!

And then here's a different bed:

This one got planted a week or so before the bottom half of the previously discussed bed, shortly after I removed all the garlic from this 8'x4' bed.  This is a mix of broccoli's as well, some grown more for their side shoots, some more as heading, but all ones I know the names of (although I don't have them in front of me).  Tucked TIGHTLY between the broccoli seedlings are a variety of lettuces, and just off-picture to the left there's some more broccoli with overwintering onion seedlings interplanted.  Is it crowded?  Sure. That's just how I garden...  Again, the lettuces will wrap up and come out before the broccoli are too tall...although with this freakishly cool summer (nights as low as 48 in mid August!?  Days sometimes never getting in the 70s!?), it is IDEAL lettuce and broccoli growing weather, so these plants could all turn into monsters by winter if we don't get a heat blast.

Mmmmm....just think of all the broccoli we'll be eating!