Time for Seedlings

We had a great garden last year, though the selection was somewhat limited. That was partly by design - we wanted to get our feet under us, figure out our soil/climate/season, gain a little experience as gardeners - and partly from inexperience - see reason number one. All-in-all, given that it was our first stab at gardening, I think we did a pretty good job. But one of the things I regret about last year is not keeping better records on our doings, so I'm making a big effort to be better about that this year. I am keeping a gardening journal, including a graph paper map of our garden and all the relevant dates. I plan to record those things here, too, along with pictures taken along the way. This will be the first of the garden progress related posts...

This year we've decided to go with almost all heirloom seeds, and are using organically grown seeds whenever possible. We began talking about this idea during the winter, and we quickly realized that it was important to both of us, mostly for the same reasons we wanted to start gardening and get bees in the first place: it's important to us to be sensitive to our environment and we want to be able to give back as much as we take. Unlike hybrids and genetically engineered seeds, heirloom seeds are much more genetically diverse and have no genetic engineering in their history. While the other two are often engineered to the point that they can survive in more drastic climates (like ours) or are resistant to various diseases, I believe that these problems can be avoided too by using heirloom seeds that have been used in the area before. This year we got all our seeds from two companies: Botanical Interests, a great Colorado company, and Seed Savers Exchange.

We have also decided to use these little plantable, biodegradable peat seed flats again this year. The only thing you have to be careful of with these little guys is being sure that, when you plant them, you put the entire pot under the ground. If you don't, if even a tiny edge is above the ground, it can be disastrous for the plant. The pots soak up some water, which is fine if it's under ground, but any exposure to the air, and the water in the pot is quickly wicked away. We found this out the hard way last year. This year we will also use a very sharp knife to remove the bottoms of the pots. We didn't have trouble last year with the pots degrading and the roots being able to push through, but if we can help the process, why not? The pieces we cut off can just be thrown into the compost pile, so there's no real waste from doing that.

Last year we had three strawberries, two blackberries, and one each blueberry and raspberry; but four or five of a handful of different veggies. We decided to be much more diverse about our plantings this year. We will have: three cauliflower (white, purple, and green), three broccoli, two broccoli rabe, four beets, two eggplants, two tomatoes, two jalapeno, two cayenne, two tomatillos, two each of Catskill and Long Island brussels sprouts, five cucumbers, five edamame, five lima beans, four acorn squash, four butternut squash, three yellow squash, three zucchini,  and four each of Jack O Lantern, Big Max, and Casper pumpkins. We planted everything but the tomatillos, cauliflower, eggplants, and Casper pumpkins March 23rd. We kept them inside, near the fire so that the oil stayed nice and warm - a factor far more important than sun at the germination stage.

We began to see our first sprouts - within the first week: the 27th saw all three broccoli and both broccoli rabe sprout; the 28th brought us sprouts of two beets, 2 Long Island brussels sprouts, four cucumber, four edamame, and one Jack O Lantern sprouts, we also planted the tomatillos that day; the next day, two more beets, two Catskills brussels sprouts, one cucumber, one edamame, and three Jack O Lanterns sprouted; the day after that two yellow squash, three zucchini, and the last Jack O Lantern sprouted; the last day of March we saw sprouts for the two tomatoes, four limas, one acorn squash, one yellow squash, and all four Big Max pumpkins.

The first two days of April we had sprouts from the last lima bean, three acorn squash, three butternut squash, and the last Big Max; and a tomatillo finally popped through the 3rd; the 4th the second tomatillo sprouted, and we planted the cauliflower, eggplants, and peppers - jalapeno and cayenne. We'd been waiting for local garden shop to get in the seeds we wanted. One of the cayenne sprouted very quickly - the 6th, and the 7th two of the cauliflower sprouted. I love that we can already tell which are going to be the purple ones - they have darker leaves with purple around the edges. The 8th we had sprouts of one jalapeno, one cayenne, and the last cauliflower; the 9th our last sprouts - one jalapeno, one cayenne, and both eggplants - emerged.

Over the last two weeks the seedlings have been growing like crazy! By the time we put them in the ground - still a month from now - we'll have strong, healthy plants, ready to put their roots into the ground and give us lots of delicious vegetables.

Of course we're hoping to still have the fruit too. It all looks like it's wintered over okay, so within the next month or so we should start seeing some green leaves on them as well. We're definitely looking forward to lots of homegrown food this summer!

P.S. We are t-minus two weeks and counting until the bees arrive!!