Friday, February 6, 2015

The Gardening Season Has Started

Yes I know I have three feet of snow on the ground right now and more is predicted over the next week. But I started my seeds today. Surely that marks the start of the gardening season.

I make up a schedule every year for what I'm planting indoors (the left side) and what I'm seeding outside. They have dates when I should be doing this and places to mark when the plants actually got seeded or planted. I rarely actually plant on the date written, but I'm pretty good at getting it somewhere around that date. My schedule says that I'm late getting the alliums started. This year I'm just seeding two types - bunching onions and shallots. All of the other onions are being bought as seedlings this year. I've never done that before and I'll see how it goes.

Most of the time I make soil blocks, but I was feeling very lazy today. So I just filled an old takeout container with some mix and did it that way. The alliums don't mind root disturbance all that much, so this way works fine with them. It will be a pain later trying to untangle the roots to plant, but for now at least it is easier. I'm sure I'll curse that choice later in the spring.

They are now sitting under the lights to germinate. I put the lids on to hold in the moisture, but not too tightly so they will get a bit of airflow.

I can't wait to see my first green this year. Sadly alliums take a a while to germinate, but I expect to see sprouting in about a week.

10 comments:

  1. Wow you are well on track for this year reaping in the benefits. That's a good idea to use those containers with lids.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hurray for the first seeds sown this season! I'll be doing my onions soon as well, but first is asparagus (which I'll be trying to grow from seed) this weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That list looks very disciplined! I make plenty of plans, but I seldom write any down. These days, by best reference for when to sow and plant is my own blog. I am currently planning to sow my first seeds of the year (chillis) next weekend. We'll see...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I need to get my seeds going this week too, starting with parsley and some early lettuce. I'm buying onions plants again this year, as I never seem to do a good enough job of growing them myself from seeds.

    ReplyDelete
  5. How nice that you have started! I plan to plant a little kale under the grow lights this month. Planted more lettuce and it has come up. Not nearly as organized as to when I should do what as you!! Nancy

    ReplyDelete
  6. I started my onions today. I haven't attempted anything beyond scallions and chives during the past couple of years because I never seem to be able to grow a decent sized bulb. This year, I'm determined.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I wait until March first to start anything and the onions don't mind that later date. I use market packs which may be a little deeper than your takeout containers and separating the roots is not difficult. Maybe I have less of a mass of roots because of the later start, but that also makes them easier to plant. It doesn't seem to hurt my harvest.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well done Daphne. I'll probably sow my first seeds next weekend (tomatoes) though I did actually sow some peas for pea shoots in a couple of containers in my lean-to a coup,e of weeks ago. I plant onion sets rather than sow seed, maybe one year when I'm more organised I could grow from seed.

    ReplyDelete