The timing of seeds

Welcome back my darlings!

It is kinda-sorta-almost spring if you squint here in the lovely Northeastern US. It will be spring some day drat it. I have eternal hope. Even if it is March and snowing. Anyhow, moving along. Today we're going to look at starting seed indoors.

First off, why on earth would anyone want to start seeds indoors, then transplant the baby plants? Why not just stick the seeds in the ground and have done with it? I'm so glad I imagined you asking.

The benefits here are two fold:

1. A longer growing season. You're planting seedlings outdoors, which means they've already got a head start. When you have a shortened growing season (I mentioned I live in the Northeastern US right?) you need all the time you can wring out.

2. Your seedlings are less vulnerable. Those tiny tender shoots that happen when the seed first breaks the earth are easily shaded out or eaten. Planting something a bit larger and established makes it less likely to die off because a dandelion decided to take up residence right next to it.

Seed starting is easy. First thing you need is to know when it's safe to get your seeds into substrate. May I suggest the Old Farmer's Almanac? They have this awesome free planting guide, you put in your location (city an state) and they automatically generate a listing of planting indoors, outdoors, and harvest times for a whole range of plants. Here's what mine looked like:

http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/NY/Schenectady

(copy and paste that, I couldn't get the picture to work).

Timing is important. If you're anything like me your natural inclination is to toss everything in at once, do a little garden dance of glee, then wonder how come your peas aren't doing so hot (hint, it's because it's too hot). If you plant too early then your seedlings can (and more than likely will) end up root bound. This makes it far more difficult to get the nutrients they need from the soil and it'll stunt their growth. If you start too late you end up not getting the benefits of starting indoors, only now you've got the added challenge of transplanting wimpy seedlings. So follow that link, input your own location, and check your starting dates.

Next thing you need is something for your seeds to grow in, and the seeds themselves. Personally I just buy the jiffy seed trays that come with the compressed peat moss pellets. They are stupid simple, add water to the tray until the pellets inflate, add seed to the moist peat moss, put the lid on it, set it in a place with ample light, and ignore until the seedlings start pushing on the lid. These do have limits (they're small, you can end up with root bound seedlings if you let them get too big in there, ect) but they're good basic starters.

Another option is to visit a hydroponic store (hydroponics - not just for growing weed anymore!) an pic up some of their starter plugs. They'll function roughly the same, you still need a tray to keep them safe in, and a light source, but they're a heck of a lot cheaper than peat moss pellets, and the person at the hydroponics store will more than likely be perfectly happy to talk your ear off about the various benefits to using them. I'll be using them next year, I'd already bought the peat moss pellets this year. Next year though... next year I am all over a whole tray full of plugs for the cost of one frickin' pellet.

Speaking of hydroponics, actually, no. Hydroponics will be its own post, keep an eye out for it.

Nothing Survives first contact

So back in July I made a post about my garden plan for this year. That lasted until my awesome friends decided to do a seed exchange in January. And I decided to expand my back yard garden, and add a front yard garden. And Husband decided to grow grain for beer, which means we have a second garden plot (Fwigg - Field where I grow grains) for growin' barley.

What does all this mean? It means I needed to reconfigure my garden plan. So here's the new plan:

Fwigf:

Yellow corn (6 stalks)
Ashworth sweet corn (6 stalks)
Butternut squash (6)
Acorn squash (6)
Northeast pole beans (24)
Cow Peas (12)
Purple stringless beans (12)
Snap peas (5)
Oxheart tomatoes (5)
Eggplant (10)
Kholrabi (10)
Peacock broccoli (6)
Peppers - mix of sweet and hot (13)
Turnips (20)
Golden midget Watermelon (7)
Bush cucumbers (13)

Again, all that is going into 400 sq ft. A 15x30 plot with  1 foot walkways between each row. Now all of these are things that I don't have to harvest the second they're ripe. I have a day or two wiggle room in each direction. Which is good because I'll be starting a new job next month which means my time to go out will be limited to 2-3 times a week tops. So I need things I can pick the day before they're ready or 1-2 days after without worrying that they're going to taste funny.

Home:

Back yard:

Snow Peas
Brussel Sprouts
Watermelon
Broccoli
Market Cabbage
Loose Cabbage
Roasting peppers
Dwarf corn
Cheese pumpkins
Noodle beans
Carrots

Front yard:

Morning Glories
Borage (it's a flower)
Marigolds
Turnip greens
Carrots

By the sidewalk:
Red cherry tomatoes
Yellow pear cherry tomatoes

The amounts for home haven't been determined yet (depends on space), but I also have two window boxes that I'm using for lettuce. Since it'll be easy to snag greens for work lunch if I have them at home. Which also means they'll get eaten, instead of turn into a really bad science experiment. I'm also planting things at home (see Noodle beans) that need to be picked and eaten (or preserved) before they go starchy and gross. So that's the new plan, we'll see how it works out once it isn't -20 with 3 feet of snow.

I'm only exaggerating by a couple of inches and a few degrees in both directions. It's miserable here right now. I'm counting down 'till spring.

Happy New Year!

It's 2015! You know what that means my darling spiceberries?! No seriously, do you? 'Cause I haven't got a clue.

Anyhow, I think I've got the home gardens figured out. The problems I face at home are two fold: the Back Yard is cursed by the fact that it must  remain very small. I have a pair of large, curious, dogs who want to "help" when I go play in the dirt. Chicken wire only does so much. The Front Yard is cursed with shade. So anything I plant out there needs to be fairly shade tolerant. Which rules out most veggies.

The front yard is getting the following along the porch:

Red noodle beans (to use the porch as a trellis, and if they don't grow then I'm not out anything since I'm growing them out at Fwigf too), then I'm doing a section of Kale (leafy greens are fairly shade tolerant and n fact growing them in shade can help keep them going in the heat of summer), then in front of that I'm doing as many carrots as I can cram in there (root veggies also like shade).

I also have a small narrow island between my driveway and walkway that I think I'm going to plant up with raspberries, blackberries, and use strawberries to fill in the negative space (at least until the cane plants get big and start baring).

My front yard will be pretty, and edible. Neighbors who complain will get bought off with small baskets of produce. Kill 'em with sarcastic, bless-your-heart, kindness.

I'm debating the pros and cons of doing cherry tomatoes along the sidewalk with a sign that says 'free, pick me!' I live right by a high school (and low income kids) and I like the idea of planting something they can take as incentive to leave the rest of my edible front yard alone. And give them something healthy to nosh on before/after school. We'll see how I feel about that when it comes time to plant.

The Back Yard:

I have a space in my back yard that's roughly 10ft x 3ft (or 3m x 1m for our metric spiceberries). What I'm going to do back there is a row of Jade Blue Dwarf Corn (because I had really good luck with it last year, so I think it'll work in the back yard) with turnip greens along the front of them.

That should (with any luck) keep me in veggies and greens all the way through next winter where all I'll need to buy for produce will be potatoes and onions.

What are your plans for gardens in 2015?