When should we start seeds?

HELPFUL TIME FRAMES FOR STARTING VEGGIE SEEDS

I found this nifty time frame chart about when to start some of our seeds indoors. Not all are listed but as I find more I’ll add it to this chart. Our last frost date here in Santa Fe (zone 5) is May 15 but you can adjust this to your time zone as it is listed as to how many weeks to start seeds ahead of your last frost date.

Please note-Anything you actually put out in the garden early before your last frost date, must have some kind of protection.

TOMATOES-6-8 weeks before last frost (sometimes even up to 10 weeks with proper lighting)

PEPPERS-8-12 weeks before last frost. Big  deal around these parts of the southwest! I find they take forever to start!

EGGPLANTS-6-8 weeks before last frost. I find these take a long time to start also.

LETTUCE-5-6 weeks before last frost if you want to start indoors. (I also like to plant lettuce, spinach and different greens, carrot and beet seeds directly in the soil right after St. Patrick’s Day around here as they can handle a little frost but I still cover them with row cover at night)

SPINACH-5-6 weeks before last frost or plant directly outdoors (around St. Patrick’s Day)

GREENS (broccoli, chard, kale, cabbage,etc)-6-8 weeks before last frost (or plant after St. Patrick’s Day)

GIANT PUMPKINS (or any pumpkin)-2-4 weeks before last frost (but you must protect them if you put them out early) or just wait as they grow fast

MELONS-2-4 weeks before last frost or just wait as they grow fast

CUCUMBERS-2 -3 weeks before last frost or just wait as they grow fast

BEANS-2 -3weeks before last frost or just wait as they grow fast

SUMMER SQUASH-Just plant after last frost date directly in garden

WINTER SQUASH-Just plant after last frost date directly in garden

‘The Heirloom Tomato’ by Amy Goldman

The Heirloom Tomato by Amy Goldman

This winter I got a beautiful book called “The Heirloom Tomato” by Amy Goldman in which she tested and rated many heirloom tomatoes. I am going to grow some of the tomatoes that got rated really high by her for flavor. So I’m trying ‘Aunt Ruby’s German Green’ -suppose to be one of the best (sweet) green tomatoes and a tomato called ‘Great White’ (one of the best white tomatoes) which is suppose to taste like angel food cake!-that plus a bunch more that she rated highly. Since getting into our Farmer’s Market last year as ‘The Tomato Lady’-“Heirloom Tomatoes and Exotic Veggies for the Discriminating Cook”, I did more research this year and picked varieties with different attributes. Some with good old fashioned tomato flavor, some that are really sweet, some great for sauces, some beautifully fluted and some different colors. Besides I like to educate my buyers as to the history of each type of tomato and there is lots of info in her book on this. You can go to my 2010 seed list page and see all of the varieties that I want to grow, including a few hybrids. I’ve put AG next to all the ones I picked from her book, although I grew black cherry tomatoes last year before I got her book and am growing this fabulous tomato again.

PS-I get nothing for promoting her book, I just love the info and pictures.

Best reason for starting your own seeds

As you can see below most of my first sowing of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are up and growing. Still, they are only 2-3″ tall so far. Some of them have their first true leaves coming out.

The best reason for starting my own seeds is that I get to pick out which varieties I want to try and the nurseries don’t usually have all of the ones I want. I try to grow mostly gourmet heirloom varieties that I will sell in our local farmer’s market if I get accepted. Last year I got into our Farmer’s Market very late in the season as I had a plethora of  tomatoes. I call myself  ‘The Tomato Lady’-Heirloom Tomatoes & Exotic Veggies For the Discriminating Cook which was a big success. I just applied to the Farmer’s Market for the summer again but this time from the beginning of the season. Growers are picked by a jury as it has gotten soo popular. I hope I get in. Besides my tomatoes, I am growing other wonderful veggies. And of course, giant pumpkin season is just around the corner too. I won’t start those seeds inside until sometime mid April.

rough plans/finished plans

So I decided to show you all what I started with for my plans for the main garden this year. I’m sorta going backwards but I think it’s worth a look to see the before and after plans.

BEFORE PLANS-UGH!

Below is the final plan I showed you a couple of weeks ago. I did these plans for those of you new here from GrowVeg.com site where I went in a created the final plans from my measurements and sketches.  I just thought you might like to see where these great plans started from. I didn’t know how to do curves when I did the final plans so I squared everthing up-but I do now.

AFTER PLANS

Baby tomatoes are just up!

Here are the tomatoes seedlings just up!

I had trouble with the tomatoes being too cold last year at night so I put some insulation around the lightbox this year and last night with the natural flourescent lights the temperature stayed at 72 degrees. Here is a pic of the light box with insulation. The pic shows the seedlings with the plastic cover off but I will leave it on until most of them germinate..

Picture of seedlings and insulation around the light box.

Growers lightbox tips for starting seedlings

Hey- I did I mention that the site where I did my plans for my garden this year is also a good source of other info on growing veggies. I just found a great article which you may want to check out which addresses pretty much how I use my “lightbox” to get my seedlings started that I just planted on Mar.1.  I use a lightbox instead of a greenhouse or hoophouse. Here is the link for the article at www.growveg.com.  I made my own lightbox as seen in my previous entry but of course you can buy one at considerably higher cost. Your choice.

TIPS FOR STARTING SEEDS UNDER A LIGHTBOX

I’m waiting for my seeds to germinate. They are on a heat mat to help with germination and I cover them with a clear top which keeps the moisture in. After the seedlings germinate, I will move the lights down within 2″  of the baby seedlings and take them off the heat mat and take off the cover so they don’t stay too moist as that is a condition for a fungal disease called damping-off which kills seedlings. To help prevent this besides taking off the clear cover, I spray the little seedlings every few days with Chamoille tea which I just make up a pot of it  (cool it) and put it in a little hand held sprayer and spray the seedlings AND soil every few days-it really works-no dead seedlings!

Starting some of my seeds!

Time to start some of my seeds! So here is how I do it:


Yesterday I got out the light fixture I made last year and brought it in the house. This year I’m going to try some natural light bulbs (instead of the flourescents I had last year). I also washed all the pots and containers in a 10% bleach solution to disinfect them in case there was anything to deter the baby seedlings growth. Then I number the pots with some masking tape and waterproof marker so that they correlate with my seed list of plants I want to grow (so I know what I planted in each pot). I put tape on the pots with the number instead of stakes with the name  in the pots as sometimes the stakes fall out. Nothing like a mystery plant where the tag falls off!


Today I got the soil in the pots, watered the soil and then planted some of my seeds to their proper depth and put a little sand over them (the sand seems to stay moister and the seedlings can push through it easier). Then I mist the sand. That way the seeds don’t get disturbed or washed away. Afterwards they go on a plant heat mat to keep warm till they germinate. I will put the lights on a timer after they germinate. Some plants need light to germinate and some don’t. I’m still learning about this. I believe I read somewhere that tomatoes don’t need light to initally germinate but do right afterwards and of course thereafter.

I planted some tomato seeds, some pepper seeds and some eggplants. All these plants seem to take the longest to get growing to decent size before transplanting, so I like to start them early. I still have more tomato seeds to start but are waiting for the seeds to come in.


Last year I used Jiffy Soil starter  and wasn’t happy when I first watered the seeds as the water rolled off the soil-so this year I got this new soil (Sun Gro Metro Mix 300) and the water immediately soaks in-much nicer! I am also going to put some insulation around the light fixture to keep the plants warmer at night as my tomatoes struggled last year when the house was cooler at night. I hope this will help. Tomatoes and peppers hate to be cold as I learned last year.

Also last year I was able to “sneak” my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in early- April 23 (our last freeze date is May 15th) in wall of waters and they did really well (look at my slide show to see them) so that is another reason I start them this early but we will see what this year brings. We’ve had a very cold and wet winter so far (it was snowing again today)..sigh. But it was nice to be in and doing something gardening wise!

Edible Flower List

2010 Edible Flower List

I’m going to have an edible flower garden section this year. I like to cook and want to incorporate these in my cooking. Following is the list of edible flowers that will be in it or are already on the property:
Borage
Calendula
Chives
Cilantro
Dill
Lavender (in existing different area)
Fennel
Lemon Gem Marigold
Alaska Tip Top Nasturtiums
Pansies, violas
Roses (in different existing area)

2010 GARDEN PLANS

Finally here are my garden plans for this year! I used a program from GrowVeg.com that is really fun to use and has all kind of useful info on it. It is free for 30 days and then if you like it, you can subscribe for a fee. I recommend it. I also saved this under my “pages” section so you can refer to it throughout the season instead of trying to find this entry later.

MAIN GARDEN-OVERALL GARDEN VIEW-DOWN BY BARN

MAIN GARDEN-CLOSE UP OF LEFT HALF (you can read it better)

MAIN GARDEN-CLOSE UP OF RIGHT HALF (you can read it better)

BRI’S GIANT PUMPKIN PATCH-DOWN BY BARN

SPRING GARDEN-UP BY HOUSE

Finally Home again!

Yea! Finally home for awhile after my final trip away. Didn’t have wi-fi in hotel and had withdrawls from my gardening books and this blog. The weather couldn’t be nicer now that I’m home. Tomorrow I will catch up more and start my edible flower list of seeds for this year.

Here in Philly

Still here in Philadelphia for the Buyers Market Craft Show where we sell handblown glass to the gallery owners and muesum buyers. We got 14 inches of new snow since we’ve been here and can’t wait to get home to Santa Fe (where we also get snow) on Feburary 16. Then no more trips are scheduled and I can concentrate on ordering seeds, starting my seedlings, and generally preparing for the next season. I’ll blog again when I return so see you then..

Going to Philadelphia’s Winter Wonderland

Leaving this winter wonderland to go to another-Philadelphia to the Buyers Market Craft Show for next weekend. I heard they got 30 inches of snow on the ground during this last storm. Of course another storm is due in there when we fly in on Tuesday- so hopefully we get in. I don’t think they are doing any gardening there soon! I will continue to update the blog with nifty projects while we all wait for SPRING! With all this moisture everywhere we all should have a great spring with wild flowers.

Lettuce Lake-Tampa Bay

I’ve been out of town in Tampa Bay, Florida playing. Saw unusual birds in the swamps at Lettuce Lake but no gators. They say it’s cold here but from where I live it’s pretty nice! Saw manatees on Hillsboro River. Check out this photo of a manatee taken underwater…

Hercules

Here is a picture of my largest pumpkin I grew last year. The picture on the sidebar is Hercules at 166 lbs and in this pic, Hercules actually got to 352 lbs which is the second largest pumpkin ever grown here in New Mexico. I thought you’d like to see it. This year I hope to grow a 500-600 lber with the knowledge I’ve gained and will share here on my blog as the growing season unfolds.