Month: February 2011

Quick Note About Growing Under Light

Water.

That little seed tray needs frequent watering.  I’ve been watering my lettuce patch, but sparingly.  Yesterday when I went to check on my seedlings, they looked terrible.  Like, I thought I was going to have to start over terrible.  I decided to give them a good soaking- and it was definitely a good soaking, I probably poured a full gallon of water in this little flat.  But look what I have today:

They’re thriving.   Now if we can only get past this sub-zero frigid temperatures outside, I can start to think about setting the lettuce outside in the screen porch.  My plan is to put them in my greenhouse rack with the plastic cover on, in the plastic covered screen porch.  That should put them at around a zone 7, and I expect the lettuces will grow wonderfully, and in no time we’ll be eating salad.

I need more lights too.  Because I want to start another flat of lettuces, only I need my trays and lights to start actual seeds.

Here’s a quick pic of my onion flat.

You can see the alliums all came up nicely- including the 50% germination Tadorna Leek.  They came up with better than 50% germ, so I guess you never know.  Far to the right you can see the parsley seedlings.  Still no artichokes.   If they don’t come up in the next week here, I’m going to dig them up and see if the seeds are doing anything.  Maybe they need to be scarified? The parsley I’m going to have to pull out soon and plant in bigger spaces.  The onions should be doing just fine here for a while, as long as I give them a haircut from time to time.   If I end up pulling the ‘chokes, when I pot up the parsley, that square of starter tray will be filled with thyme, marjoram and lovage.

Planting Schedule

Whew!  This took a while to assemble.   First, I had to go through and decide what I wanted to grow this year.  I haven’t nailed down specific varieties yet, just a general idea of what I want to grow.  I am getting close to a tomato grow list though, and my hot pepper list is pretty solid too.

Starting plants inside requires careful timing and preparation.  There have been years where I started them a little too early, and others a little too late.  This year, I hope to hit the sweet spot and have everything just so.  With my interest in growing in cold frames this fall, my grow list is pretty much never-ending.    It’s a lot of work planning this year!  There are the new raised bed vegetable gardens, and then other areas- like I have chosen a space to be a dedicated herb bed, and as such, I’ll be able to grow as many herbs as I want.  So many of those I’m going to try from seed- and some I will buy established plants.  I really want a strawberry bed, but I’m just not sure how much time Andy will actually be able to devote to yard prep this spring- in addition to building and filling my garden boxes with soil.

So for now, here is my growing calendar.  I am using May 15th as my frost-free date when planning my seed starts.  It’s a very rare year we get frost beyond that, and we’ve had years where there hasn’t been frost beyond the end of March, but the plants can be flexible as far as when they get hardened off and planted.  My dates are really approximate, a few days to either side will be okay.

Spring/Summer Sowings:

January 26:  Onions, Leeks, Artichokes, Parsley (all up except artichokes!)

February 12-26: Lovage, Marjoram, Thyme, Eggplant (unsure on eggplant)

February 26: Hot Peppers, Sweet Peppers

March 12: Basil, Summer Savory

March 12-19: Tomatoes

March 26: Chives, Sage, Scallions, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts

April 9: Chervil, Cabbage, Melons

April 23: Cucumbers, Borage, Cilantro

Between April 23 and May 31 the rest of the garden will be direct sown- dill, carrots, beets, spinach, tons of greens, potatoes, peas, beans, radish, etc.

July 12-20 I will sow a round of peas for fall harvest

Planting for Cold Frames:

June 1-15:  Swiss Chard, Carrots, Parsley

June 15- July 1: Beets, Parsley, Carrots

July 1-15: Carrots and Parsley (successive sowings of these ones)

July 1- August 1: Kale, Turnips, Sorrel, Mizuna, Swiss Chard

August 1-15: Spinach

August 15-September 1: Mache, Mizuna, Claytonia, Radish, Endive, Escarole

September 1-15: Arugula, Claytonia, Minutina, Mache, Radish

September 15-October 1: Radicchio

The cold frame crops will be sown directly into the beds set aside for them.   I will also try and add a few lettuces to them, and see how long I can harvest of those.  Once cold temperatures arrive, I should be able to add my cold frames to the beds and thus, my late fall, winter growing will begin.

Up next, I have to physically plan out my beds.  This is going to be tricky.