10 more things to Do in February For the Garden

Feb1

We may not be able to get out in our gardens now but it is time to get busy with things to do to get ready for the garden. March will be seed starting time and there will be lots to do before for that. I will be elaborating on some of these items over the next few posts as I see there is more info I can offer.

1. Go over your current seed supply. Organize it. Get rid of any seeds over 3 years old unless you froze them. Fresh seeds are essential for good germination. Older seeds have less success of germinating.

2. Decide which vegetables you want for this year and order any seeds you may need to get from seed catalogs.

3. Talk to your local nursery to see what they might be growing this year. I give a list to mine and they tell me what they are growing so I don’t duplicate. I prefer to let them do the growing, it’s just that I want to grow so many varieties that they might not have so I have to start some by seed.

4. Stock up on any fertilizers, amendments, compost, nutrients, mycorizzial, and biomicrobes you may need for veggies. i.e- tomatoes, giant pumpkins

5. Check your grow light boxes to make sure they work. Get new bulbs if necessary.

6. Check grow heating mats to make sure they work and get more if necessary. Last year I had one and ordered another as my seed growing expanded.

7. Consider purchasing a seed mat thermostat. Last year I had to get one because the seed heating mats were running too hot and burning up the seeds before they have a chance to germinate. The mats stay 10° F hotter than the ambient temperature of the room so if we are having a really warm spring and the temperature is 80° F inside than the temperature would run 90°F in the seed flats-way too hot. The thermostat will keep the temperatures in the pots at whatever is best germinating temperature.

7. Purchase soil seed starting mix. I use Metro Mix 100 to start seeds. This stuff is great. The water doesn’t roll off the ‘dirt’ like many seed starting soils

8. Clean and sterilize any containers you plan to reuse for seed starting or transplanting seedlings. Use a 10% bleach to water ratio to rinse off the containers.

9. Buy any containers you may need for seed starting/transplanting. Most gardening stores sell up to 3″ in the peat pots. If you want a 4″ peat pot, go to Territorial Seeds. They are the only ones that have that size. I need them for my giant varieties cause they grow so fast. I also like the flats that have a raised lid. good for germination.

10. Read at least one good gardening book your interested in each month during the winter. I’m almost finished with ‘Four Season Gardening’ by Eric Coleman and just ordered ‘The Compost Tea Brewing Manual’ by Elaine R. Ingham.

2011 Vegetable Garden Plans

Mar12

My 2011 garden plan is too big for this post so I divided it in half in hopes you can read it. Maybe not though. Anyways this is my main garden plan from the left side. The second image below the first one is of the right side of the garden plan with the strawberries being the over lapping part. It totals around 3000 sq feet for lots of vegetables. Notice I still don’t have all the areas filled yet.

I also have a plan for the pumpkin patch but won’t publish that as it will only has 3 giant pumpkins and some giant marrow growing in it this year. It also is 3000 sq feet for all of them. Giant pumpkins take a lot of room to grow. They are the gorillas of the garden going anywhere they want to so it is best to get them out of the main garden and let them sprawl.

You can make your own garden plan groveg.com. It’s a great program and easier to read than my chicken scratch in years past. (Don’t tell my chickens, they can read their chicken scratch just fine. You can save the plans from year to year and then just change out the veggies once you make a plan. It’s also fun to do and looks nice. I print it out and put it in my garden shed to remind me what to plant and where.

main garden left side

main garden right side

10 things to Do in February For the Garden

Feb7

We may not be able to get out in our gardens right now but it is time to get busy with things to do to get ready for the garden. March will be seed starting time and there will be lots to do before for that. I will be elaborating on some of these items over the next few posts as I see there is moe info I can offer.

2. Decide which vegetables you want for this year and order any seeds you may need to get from seed catalogs.

3. Talk to your local nursery to see what they might be growing this year. I give a list to mine and they tell me what they are growing so I don’t duplicate. I prefer to let them do the growing, it’s just that I want to grow so many different varieties that they might not have so I have to start some by seed.

4. Stock up on any fertilizers, amendments, compost, nutrients, mycorizzial, and biomicrobes you may need for veggies. i.e- tomatoes, giant pumpkins

5. Check your grow light boxes to make sure they work. Get new bulbs if necessary.

6. Check grow heating mats to make sure they work and get more if necessary. Last year I had one and ordered another as my seed growing expanded.

7. Purchase soil seed starting mix. I use Metro Mix 100 to start seeds. This stuff is great. The water doesn’t roll off the ‘dirt’ like many seed starting soils

8. Clean and sterilize any containers you plan to reuse for seed starting or transplanting seedlings. Use a 10% bleach to water ratio to rinse off the containers.

2010 GARDEN PLANS

Feb27

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