And Sow It Begins
This past weekend I seeded my first two flats of lettuce and radicchio. I like to have a flat of seedlings ready to be planted into a low tunnel when the weather starts to warm up. For me, it’s well worth the few minutes it takes to complete this chore in early February in order to be harvesting loads of salad greens by mid/late March.
Littles decided that the flats needed a little warmth and has decided it’s her new favorite top. Thank goodness for these heavy duty Perma-Nest trays!!!
What’s the first vegetable you seed for your garden?
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Friday Favorite: Snow
After being in the mid-fifties on Thursday, we woke up to snow covering the ground and a forecast of 3-6″ to fall during the day.
While I do love spring and appreciate it, I enjoy winter as well. Snow is vital to our gardens, it provide nitrogen and moisture for spring plantings. It protects our perennials with an insulating blanket. We will still get more snow in the weeks to come, winter isn’t even close to being over. I’m certainly going to relish these last few weeks of winter and hopefully will be able to get in a lot of snowshowing!
Do you get snow in your garden? When do you typically get your last snow?
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A Nice Window
It’s been a little warm here the past few days, our blanket of snow has melted and the ground can be worked. It’s the perfect time to broadcast a few seeds for cold tolerant varieties like arugula, cilantro, mustard, and a few other things. Winter will return, in fact we’re supposed to get snow tomorrow and next week it will once again be in the single digits. These seeds don’t care, they will wait and spring forth when they’re ready.
They won’t germinate as quickly as they do when the soil is warmer, but they’ll germinate when the conditions are right and I’ll have a much earlier crop that I would have if I had waited.
I’m also going to be seeding a flat of lettuce, which is something I do every year. I find that having a flat of greens ready to go into the ground in spring gives me a jump on the season and has me harvesting greens for my table at least a month if not 6 weeks before direct seeded crops. I love having things ready to plant as soon as the ground is ready. This winter has been fairly mild, which means my overwintered spinach is thriving and should start growing as soon as conditions improve in a month or so.
What are you doing in the garden this weekend?
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First Seeds of 2016
Yesterday I planted my first garden seeds for this year. What were they? Artichokes.
At 180-240 days these babies take a LONG time to reach maturity. I’ve also read that they appreciate a bit of a cold snap early on to make them think they’ve gone through a winter.
Will I be able to harvest artichokes to eat? I guess we’ll find out this fall. If Eliot Coleman can grow them here in Maine, I think I can as well.
What fund edible are you going to try this year for the first time?
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Waiting…..
Usually I have my seed order all figured out by now and the seeds have arrived and have been categorized and organized. Not.this.year.
I’ve looked through a few catalogs and sorted through my seeds, but I haven’t made a final list of things I want. I feel like I’m behind, but I’m not, I’m just usually ahead of the game. This year my goal is to only buy the essentials, I have lots of seeds in my stash that should be used up. The good thing is that I’ll save a few dollars and I should save space in the garden. There is a habit around here of having more seedlings than garden space, I bet none of you ever have that problem. Today, I will be ordering my seeds. Then the gardening season has begun.
Have you ordered your seeds yet this year?
