The First Signs of This Year's Garden

 One of the highlights of gardening is having the ability to start your plants by sowing your own seeds. I like the variety you can get and I love the fact that I can stagger when I plant which then allows me to stagger and prolong the harvest of a variety of plants.

I have a confession. All of my seeds are an heirloom variety of one sort or another except for my Sweet Bell Mix. This sweet bell pepper has a nice number of peppers on each plant and they tend to range from yellow, to orange, to a red-orange. It's a hybrid, but I just love it!

My eggplant is something that I have been experimenting with. It seems to produce quite a bit and I just love how much you can use eggplant in different recipes. This year, I have 5 different varieties! I am excited to see how they all compare to one another.

Most of the seeds that I have started were started on February 17th. Some of the seeds were started on February 20th.

At this point I have seedlings for my cabbage, eggplant, chile peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet peppers, and a couple of varieties of tomatoes.

I have found that I really like the seed starting mix from Henry Fields. My seedlings are kept in that until they reach pretty good size with good root development.

Once the seedlings have a pair of true leaves set, then I will transplant them so that there is just one plant per cell or peat pot.
I will be looking at my seedlings this weekend, unless we get another snow day, and then it will be sooner! When I look at how the seedlings have developed, I will decide which ones I should replant. Some of my seeds were packed for 2014, so I want to be sure they are still viable. Unfortunately, it seems that as soon as you carry over seeds to the next year, they only germinate 50% of the time. So far, it looks like I have a pretty good success rate. Time will tell.

I have a plant rack that I set up in the kitchen. I ended up getting aquarium hoods to use for my lighting and I have found that this system works pretty well.
I'm looking forward to seeing how these seedlings develop and I'm looking forward to transplanting them soon!

Transplanting Seedlings according to John Jeavons

 I find that when I am preparing my plants for the garden, a lot of what I do comes from reading everything I can get my hands on, what I remember from working in a garden with various grown-ups when I was a child, and just hands-on experience. I find that sometimes when I share what I have learned I get puzzled looks or that 'yeah, right' look. So, when I find someone else saying the say thing that I believe to be true based on my experiences, it makes me happy.

Yesterday, I picked up the book How to Grow More Vegetables* (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops) *than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine by John Jeavons. Barnes & Noble link to the book

The book is not filled with a lot of beautiful photos or quick how-to tricks, it's all about the basics of growing BIOINTENSIVE. Which, anyone who knows me or is familiar with my blog knows is basically how I garden.

So, this morning, as I was looking through the information on seeds, I was really happy to come across very useful information on transplanting seeds. A couple of years ago I began to start all of my plants from seed and I have found that my plants are healthier and I am much happier with the varieties that I can grow. I have also found that I am just happier with plants that I start from seed. As I was reading in this book, I found that transplanting is actually preferred over direct sowing due to improved root health. Based on what I have experienced, I totally agree.

There were a couple of simple drawings in the book that I would like to share with you in regards to transplanting seedlings. You should transplant your seedlings up to their first two true leaves. This is how I treat my seedlings and they are just healthier.

This book has a lot of valuable information for those of you who are really serious about utilizing your space in a self-sustaining manner. For those who work with companion planting, this book is awesome. I will be adding this book to my gift list for friends and family who garden!

Seedlings as of February 10, 2013

Today, I started thinning my seedlings and transplanting the ones that were large enough to move. I find it is a very tedious process as you carefully separate some of the seedlings from one another. But this is a process that is absolutely necessary.

For optimum growth and development the seedlings cannot be fighting for space and nutrients. Did I accidentally damage a few, yes, but nothing to be upset about. Some people just cut off the seedlings to thin so they do not disturb the roots. I prefer to carefully work the seedlings and roots from the soil and transplant as many as possible. I loose a few, but not many.


 The tomatoes and peppers are actually doing really well right now. Who knows how large these plants will be when it's time to harden them off for the garden!

I am disappointed with my broccoli and cauliflower seedlings. They appear to have gotten too warm and dry. I will need to start seed for them again.


From time to time you will have seeds that don't do well and need to be resown, but it's not very often. I usually start my seeds so early, there's still time to plant again.



I will also need to start some of my other seeds soon as well. Everything is moving in the right direction!

Go with the flow! (but use frost cloth!)

 So, I don't know what the weather has been like for you in your part of the world. But I know that here in Owings Mills, just outside of Baltimore, Maryland, it has been unseasonably warm for weeks. I can't get over how it seems to be late spring already. We have had several 80 degree days, and many days are in the mid to upper 70's with lows at night only in the 50's. This is crazy and it's really messing with my time table for starting seeds. 

This weekend I decided to just go with the flow because at this point my seeds will never be plant ready for the garden before it's bolting weather. So, I will save my seed planting of cole crops for the fall harvest. With that said, I went to my favorite garden center in Westminster, Maryland. (Bowman's) I went ahead and bought my cole crops and a few lettuce plants to get things started.

Today, I had an opportunity after work to plant the first Cabbage Neighborhood which at this point is a combination of cabbage, lettuce, and greens. I will be interplanting the other companions after I see which way the weather is going to go. I'll probably get some of the root veggies interplanted this weekend.

So, it was 78 degrees today and I was able to get the first bed of the garden ready. But with a couple of years experience, I also know to expect the unexpected. I used my fiberglass rods to create my hoops and then covered the bed with frost cloth that is anchored with lawn staples.

I'm going with the great weather and getting things rolling- but I'm prepared for what we sometimes call the 'broccoli snow'.  You never know . . .