Gentlemen, Start Your Seedlings: Preparing For The Beginning Of The Seed Starting Season
It is that time of year (Finally!). It is time to pull out the Tupperware container from the vegetable drawer in the refrigerator (I have two, one for seeds and one for actual vegetables) and plan what will be going into the garden this year.
Then this weekend, I am gonna get my seed starting on.
And I am going to start a whole bunch of seeds… because it is pretty much guaranteed that I will kill half of them. If I start a whole bunch, then sheer statistics say that at least a few will survive to see May.
Unfortunately, according to my handy-dandy Clyde’s Garden Planner Guide (given to me so I could take a little look-see at it) I shouldn’t be starting most of my seeds until mid-April. Eeeek! I don’t think I can wait that long. I didn’t wait that long last year. But, then again, perhaps this would explain my overwhelming ability to fail at seed starting. Maybe I am just too impatient and I am starting too early. Then my poor little seedlings, like children with helicopter parents, are just loved too long to a terrible end.
Nah, that’s bullshit. I just forget to water them or put them in bad soil. Though, if I started them later, there would be less opportunity for me to forget to water them and they might have a better chance.
Looking at the Clyde’s Garden Planner is making me just a bit depressed. It reminds me how far off Spring, Summer and garden grown tomatoes are. There is two feet of snow and I want to believe that it will all be gone by April and the world will once again be a bright and shining garden where rabbits frolic and butterflies flit happily from flower to flower singing a gay and happy song. Way too much time trapped in a house watching Disney movies. Do you see what winter is doing to me? I am turning into one of those scary people who shuffle around, talk gibberish and ask for money. Save me from a fate where I turn into a politician!
I need to start my seeds. I need gardening. I need to grow something!!!!!!!!
So I will start a few seeds this weekend. A handful. A distraction. A bit to keep me going until I can kill them and then start over right when the Garden Planner tells me too.
Glad to see some rumblings from the frozen suburbs of Cleveland. Knowing you are starting your seeds means spring is surely just around the corner.
My sister, not a experienced gardener, started okra (yes southern girl) and musk melon last week. It will be interesting to see what they look like by May.
What about peppers? Perhaps some early flowering perennials or some herbs for indoor growing? Now that the grandson lives with us, we should start something. Good luck and keep us in formed!!
Plant, plant, plant! I’m planting this weekend too–peppers and lavender and shiso and broccoli (since only half of mine have sprouted so far). It’s cold, they won’t grow too fast, right?
I started some seeds in my mostly unheated basement. The brussel sprouts, lettuce, and spinach are all coming up fine. The tomatoes and jalapenos aren’t doing anything.
How long can I keep my sprouts in those little peat pellets before I need to transplant them?
I put lots of seeds in trays this week. Like you, though, I will mostly forget to water them enough so they will die. Or perhaps I’ll do better this year….
I’m super eager to start seeds, too! This is my first year starting from seeds so I am trying to behave and wait until the “chart” says I should…
I am going off of this chart http://www.victoryseeds.com/information/planting_guide.html
What do you use for a reference?
Best wishes, Michelle
Curious if you have any suggestions for suppliers of strawberry crowns- preferrably as close to an heirloom as one gets in the world of strawberries. I’m tired of giant, shiny, red, yet tasteless strawberries. I’d rather they be small and full of seed while packed with flavor! So far my searches haven’t yielded any “ah-ha!” moments. Figured I’d ask, especially since you’re in a similar climate/zone as I am.
After leaving here I went to organicgardening.com. They have a nice chart for starting seeds, as well as much other stuff.
I’m jealous, I really don’t know what to do this year. I’m due at the beginning of April which is when I normally start my seeds. I doubt I’m going to feel like doing that while taking care of a newborn and a toddler. My husband stole my grow lights and permanently installed them in the rec room.
I reallllly don’t want to buy starter plants from a nursery in May but I may just have to.
Bleh…lol.
I started my seeds (cucumbers, 2 kinds of tomatoes, 7 kinds of peppers-sweet and hot, & eggplant) the end of January… In retrospect I should have waited till March or April for the cucumbers but, like you, I couldn’t wait! Every seedling (over 200, I plant too many expecting them to die but they haven’t yet?!) have their first leaves now and the cucumbers are starting to grow there fourth set. I think they will end up in hanging baskets by April… Still have squashes, corn pumpkins, and watermelons to plant. My family thinks I’m insane and they my be right, but nothing tastes as good as food from the garden!
Happy planting!
Heather
I am baffled that people start their seeds so very early. Our last frost date here in Zone 7 isn’t until May 1. I’ll start mine in another week or so and that’s just plenty of time.
Robin at Bumblebee
My Dad always starts his plants too early. He’s tired of WINTER and he just can’t help himself. I wait. I don’t want 3 foot tall root bound tomato plants by the middle of May. I find that a small healthy transplant does much better. We must be patient. SPRING is just around the corner!!
I know I’m way late on this comment, but perhaps it’ll be of service next winter.
Have you seen the website http://www.wintersown.org ? You can totally sow seeds when its still winter, with great success. I tried it this year and it worked great!