So far, a lot of kinds of peppers, broccoli, califlower, pac choi, and lettuce. Tomatoes get started in about a week.

bella_trix: Great looking plants!

I started my herbs that will be going into pots on my deck on saturday, and I'll be starting tomatoes, peppers and maybe broccoli later this week.

No fancy grow lights for me though! They'll just live next to a window for a few weeks then go into the garden.

hamiltongardener

Haven't grown/seen anybody with brussel sprouts so am a little cautious with unventured territories.Plus the sight of brussel sprouts on the dinner plate induces convulsive attacks in DH, so thats another reason.

hatchjon
Last year I started pole beans indoors and have to say that not all of the seedlings transplanted well.However, the ones that did live took very well to the peat pellets they were in and had good produce till end of September. Direct seeding may be the way to go but I guess I really want to start growing something, ANYTHING... for the illusion of an approaching summer.

ok,i really like the setup you got bella.its simple and cheap and effective.i will probably start my eggplants,watermelons and okra soon enough.im really gettin addicted to this stuff.

I'm so jealous of the southern climates. Up here the most we can do at this point is order seeds. It is still to early to start anything inside as our safe planting date for here isn't until the end of May :( I am anxiously awaiting the middle of March when I can start my first plants which will be yellow sweet spanish onions.

I used to be jealous of the southern climates, butthen I realized that they deal with a heck of a lot more pests and diseases than we do since they don't get the same amount of winterkill we do. And, some of their pests don't have a range that reaches up to us.

So it's a trade off. We have to endure the pictures of their first ripe tomato before we even hit our last frost date. But we also don't have to deal with half of the ravages and buildup of pests that they do either.

Tomatoes. LOTS of tomatoes... in yogurt cups, in a cardboard box, under the kitchen table.

I have been growing salad greens since Jan 1 in my basement and am able to eat a good size salad 3-4 times a week from it. Just today I did start pak choi, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, cabbage, chard and kale to be transplanted out hopefully in early April in a small hoop house...first time with a hoop house so I am learning.

I have a couple pictures on my blog of my lettuce grown indoors for salads.

Here is a link that might be useful: my blog

I have:

ready to go out to the gh in the next week or so
2 varieties of lettuce
lots of broccoli
a few green cabbage

getting ready:
4 Anaheim chilies
4 Yellow bellpepers

Already growing strong in gh:
sugar snap & snow peas

Just sowed in gh:
carrots

will be sowing spinach in gh today or tomorrow.

I have planted garlic in the fall. A lot of it is starting to shoot up. Looks nice and green.
Am going to plant onions tomorrow. Have planted some in the fall as well

As for indoors, tomatoes, lettuce, snow peas, spinach, broccoli.
Hope to see seedlings soon that would go to the greenhouse.

I started some habaneros inside. It's still a little too early to start things. Next week or the week after I'll start peppers, more hot peppers and tomatoes, maybe broccoli & cauliflower too.

Right now - herbs. I'll start more herbs today. This weekend or so I'll do broccoli, lettuce, greens and an early tomato. I should have started a tomato weeks ago. I spaced it out.

Wow! I'm surprised at some of the stuff you guys are starting so early. I don't have that kind of faith in my set up! I wish I had one like yours, Bella! I have started red and yellow onions, broccoli, cauliflower, mesclun and romaine lettuce, and some herbs for an inside kitchen garden.

Oh, I did start one cherokee purple tomato, just to see if the seeds I saved were any good- they seem to be sprouting.

Last night I started some lettuce, spinach, chives, thyme, parsley, brussles sprouts, green onions and some flowers. They are in my little plastic Jiffy box in my only sunny window. This is the first time I will have tried to start something indoors first, so I guess we'll see in a couple of weeks if it was worth the effort.

In mid-January I started indoors 5 kale, 5 lettuce, 1 broccoli, and 22 asparagus. I've been hardening them for the past week. I'll transplant them outside this weekend, with everything but the kale under cloches. It's early, but the cloches have had lettuce, spinach, arugula & snow peas direct seeded since early January, and they're doing OK (if slowed by a bit of snow a week after I sowed) - so I'm thinking the transplants have a decent chance. (Also, the 15 day forecast looks pretty good.)

All this transplanting is to make way for the new sowings I did indoors.

Five days ago I started indoors 8 tomatoes, 4 potatoes (from seed), 2 broccoli, and 1 rhubarb. The broc have sprouted and as of this morning a couple toms are just breaking ground.

While I'm out transplanting tomorrow, I'll also direct sow under a cloche chard, carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, arugula, & cilantro, and I'll direct sow without cover some mustard greens and mesclun.

These are all small patches (square foot garden segments), but hopefully they'll get an early start on the season. I'm a novice, but quite enthusiastic. I'm taking the heart the prospect of 4-season veggie gardening that's supposedly possible here.

I think a lot depends on our zones / and greenhouse setups as far as how early we start. Some things I wish I started earlier. (lettuce, peas, etc.)

Artichokes, chives (regular onion and garlic), Welsh onions, basil, Bughatti lettuce, three kinds of peppers (serranos, early jalapenos, pasilla bajio peppers) and three kinds of tomatoes (Texas Wild, Fox Red Cherry, and Beefsteak). I've also got a few ornamentals ~ castor beans, luna white and luna pink hibiscus, and red shield hibiscus.
{{gwi:20734}} (You can click that one to get a bigger pic ~ some haven't sprouted in that one though since it was taken a few days or a week ago.)

I've been wanting to start more seeds, especially tomatoes and peppers, but ants moved into my warming table. Ack! They're getting evicted tomorrow ~ I'll take all the soil out of the table and replace it, then sprinkle cayenne heavily throughout to keep them out. Some of the peppers in the flat have started sprouting, so I'm not sure how I'll get them out of there ~ maybe just sprinkle cayenne on them too, even though that'll take a few days for them to move out.
{{gwi:20735}}

Outside in the raised beds I have red, yellow and white onions (Sweet Red, 1015Y and White Bermuda, respectively), parsley, bloody dock, cilantro, a bunch more herbs just planted from small transplants and three more kinds of lettuce ~ I can only remember one kind out there which is Jericho, a kind bred in Israel for heat tolerance.
{{gwi:20736}}

Tomorrow I'll be planting potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes in pots. I HATE digging potatoes, so I thought the big pots would be easier ~ I can just turn them over on a tarp, harvest the tubers and put the soil back in the pots. Yep, I'm a lazy gardener. ;)

It is still a little early for me to start anything other than peppers but I have my hands full. The tomatoes will be started in about 2 to 3 weeks.These are the peppers that I have going so far. Tomorrow morning i will start the rest of the annuums.

Alba
Ancient Sweet
BGH 1725
Bhut Jolokia
Bird Aji
Bishops Crown
Black Scorpion Tongue
Boldog
Botinecka Zuta
Brazilian Red Pumpkin
C. Cardenasii
C. Eximium
C. Galapogoense
C. Lanceolatum
C. Microcarpum
C. Praetermissum
CAP 215
CAP 499
CAP 500
CAP 503
CAP 1446
CAP 1478
CAP 1530
CGN 19198
CGN 21502
Chilli Congo
Chinese 5 color
Chupetinha
Cobinchu
Corno De Toro
Cumari De Para
Diamond White
Elephant Ear
Fatalii
Fatalii Red
Fat-n-Sassy
Floral Gem
Fushimi
Greygo
Hab #44
Hab Amarillo
Hab Big Sun
Hab Black Congo
Hab Brown
Hab Cancun
Hab Cappucino
Hab Caribbean Red
Hab Condors Beak
Hab Fogoso
Hab Fransisco
Hab Giant White
Hab Golden
Hab Guadaloupe
Hab Ivory
Hab Lemon
Hab Little Finger
Hab Long Chocolate
Hab Manzano
Hab Martinique
Hab Mustard
Hab Neon Yellow
Hab Paper Lantern
Hab Peach
Hab Punta Giallo
Hab Red Dominican
Hab Red Savina
Hab Rpjo
Hab Rosso
Hab St. Barts
Hab Surinam
Hab Tree
Hab Yellow
Hab Yellow Pointed
Inca Red Drop
Jimmy Nardello
Kerinting
Klara Baby Cheese
Kuala Sweet
Mini Chocolate Bell
Mini Red Bell
Mini Yellow Bell
Mishme
Murupi
Orange Lantern
Padron
Peru Scarlet Lantern
PI 257142
PI 260427
PI 313019
PI 315019
PI 439414
PI 439478
PI 439479
PI 441629
PI 441637
PI 497980
PI 543208
PI 560936
PI 560944
PI 631154
Pimenta De Neyde
Portachuela
Purira
Purple Pea
Rain Forest
Rocopica
Rocotillo
7-Pot
Socrates
Soroksari
TC 07246
Trinidad Scorpion

Dale

Forgot to put in the picture of my new germination box. I was getting tired of wiping the condensation off of the plastic dome lid every hour so i put this together and I could not be happier with it's performance.

{{gwi:15284}}

Dale

Now THAT is cool, Dale! Good job on that!

wow thats alot of peppers how do you plant them out,in rows or what.you must be able to harvest like 20 pounds a day or more.

Just peppers for me :D

Sweet:
Gypsy
Cubanelle
Bull Horn
Bells

Hot:
Jalapenos
Hot Hungarian
Cayenne

I will start some herbs (basil and thyme) and tomatoes next week.

I'm sooooooo JEALOUS!!
You high zoners have all the fun.

I'm growing a backache from shoveling snow, snow, ice, ice baby and more snow.

I'm starting to day dream about Summer.

I feel your pain We are supposed to get anywhere up to 8" today, nothing yet though.

staticx, check out the Photobucket link and you can see how i planted the peppers. The pepper maggots got me bad last year, I was throwing away large garbage cans full of peppers every week. It was terrible, so this year I am only putting small podded varieties in the garden and selling the others.

Dale

Here is a link that might be useful: garden pics

Just wait, TheSun ~ come high summer we'll be the ones jealous of all you northerners with your cooler temps and lower pest levels. We'll be sitting down here fighting SVBs the size of Oldsmobiles, grasshopper infestations of biblical proportions and powdery mildew thick enough to have an R-9 insulation rating (IF we ever get any rain, that is), all the while melting in our boots.

:o) Funny!

I dream of SVBs, horrible thunderstorms and swarms of mosquitoes.

NOAA says we'll get another five to seven feet of snow before
April.

It has been a harsh winter.

As dry as it has been this past year or two, TheSun, I'd gladly take all seven feet of your snow, even if it came all at once. I swear, it's drier than a popcorn fart down here.

knittlin

AMEN!!! We have had no moisture of any kind for months and what little we had was dried up by high winds.

Our soil is so dry you can not get a shovel into it. That is why I'm doing raised beds so I can use soaker hoses to water just the plants. I prayed for a good snow this year but it did not happen...had a tiny bit of sleet that the wind blew away. Today we have wind up to 40mph and with my allergies, I will not be going outside! Discovered this morning my humidifier bit the dust from over use so I will suffer with my sinus problems until hubby can get back into town and buy another.

PRAYING for RAIN!
Peggy

podpiper,awesome garden and i would like to ask what was that large watermelon pile of and is it a seedless variety?
thanks

staticx, there is actually 6 different varieties but no seedless (this year I will)

Summer Flavor 420 (will grow again in 2009)
Blacktail Mountain
Georgia Rattlesnake
Royal Golden
Cream Of Saskatchewan
Tendersweet orange

Dale

In my zone just alpine strawberries (in 150 paper pots) and about a dozen rhubarb seeds (not pictured). I'll get the leeks started tomorrow, but I wish I had got to them earlier.

{{gwi:20737}}

Sungold yellow cherry tomatoes
Jubilee yellow tomatoes
Super beefsteak tomatoes
Pimiento Dulce sweet peppers
Yellow Bell sweet peppers
California Wonder bell peppers
Sweet banana mix peppers

I'm starting them in peat pellets in a mini greenhouse dome on top of the fridge for bottom warmth, then they move to grow lights.

Well, I haven't started anything indoors yet, but peppers will get sown in the next week or two, and then tomatoes. Still need to narrow the lists down a bit though : )

Everything else is getting wintersown. Here is what I have so far:
{{gwi:20738}}

That includes 5 kinds of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, amaranth, cilantro, dill, parsley, marjoram, and winter savory, plus quite a few perennials. Just discovered sprouts in most of the lettuce and spinach containers today.

BTW, Podpiper, where did you find seeds for Boldog? If that's the Hungarian Paprika, I've been trying to buy seeds for two years, and everyone's always out of stock.

Bonnie

Bonnie, shoot me an email.

Dale

Dale, sent you an email. Let me know if it goes through.

Thanks,
Bonnie

I have started Celery (Celebration) and Parsley (Italian Flat Leaf) on around Feb. 9th. I was surprised they sprouted in just 7 days! Tonight I will plant lettuce and spinach indoors for a head start - can never have too much of them!

Eep! I can see that I'm behind the curve!

Let me see:
I have broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts seeded indoors (will put out in another few weeks).

I'll buy tomato and peppers plants in April from our Master Gardeners program.

I'll direct seed legumes when the rain lets up.

Maybe I should start pumpkins and gourds now indoors?

I haven't started any seeds yet. I really need to do some wintersowing and I do have a small zip-up greenhouse. I do have beets, onions, cauliflower,chard, spinach, lettuce, some herbs and other cool season plants outside. I need to start my tomatoes and peppers. My biggest worry is that with the drought we are having in California, I won't be able to water as much as I need to. I keep everything on drip/soaker hoses with timers but I am thinking of cutting back on my country garden. I didn't winter sow any flower
seeds this year. I think I will concentrate on keeping trees, shrubs and perennials alive. I am using lots of mulch to cover the areas that usually have annuals and to keep down the weeds. This is so hard because I was planning to double the size of my vegetable garden.

Very impressive. Question: I have a weekend house in zone 5B so I'm only there 3 nights a week. I have fantastic light and direct sunlight in the house. One window in my guest room gets morning sun for about 2-3 hours. I also have afternoon sun in another room for about 2-3 hours. Does anyone think it's possible to start some seedings in either of these rooms without having to set up lights? I would also need to address the water situation since I can't be there 4 days to water. I'm thinking I'd place the planters in a small amount of water in a a large flat container. Any idea's and if so what's the best thing to plant? Thanks.

Cindy_l, I'd wait on the pumpkins and gourds and just direct seed them ~ shouldn't be but another couple weeks 'til it's safe to do that in your zone. Also, it's a bit late to be starting cole crops (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, etc.) and other cool weather crops from seed. What does the planting chart for your area say? Usually, if it's not specified on the chart, the dates they give are for transplants, so if there's no info for starting seeds specifically, count back six weeks from the date they give and that's when you should be starting seeds.

I'm a zone north of you and after February, setting out plants would be too late for me to get any harvest. Last time I tried it, the broccoli ad cauliflower didn't make tight, compact heads ~ they just went to flower as soon as they started forming the heads (it was weird seeing a head of cauliflower looking normal at the edges, but with a flower stalk sticking out of the middle! LOL!). Brussels sprouts never did make any sprouts, just leaves hwere the sprouts should have been.

But since you've started them anyway, I'd just keep on going with them to see what happens. If your temps don't get as high as it does for me, you might get something out of them after all.

Ekling211, check out capillary mats. They're these fabric mats that you put your seed trays on top of and put one end of the mat in a tray of water. It's supposed to keep things watered while not letting them sit in water (that would be a bad thing). Also, two or three hours of light just isn't enough. Can you set up some lights on timers? Lastly, the best thing to plant is what you want to eat! :)

I couldn't wait any longer, last week I started tomatoes-2 varieties, basil-4 varieties, stevia, peppers-1 hot, 1 sweet. As of yesterday the basil, stevia and one lone tomato seedling had begun to sprout - can't wait to get home tonight and see how things are coming along.

On Saturday I started more peppers-cubanelle, more tomatoes-yellow pear, marigolds, oregano and pansies.

I'm still waiting for the last of my seed orders to arrive...more tomatoes of course, sage and more peppers.

We're in the freeze & thaw cycle soon to be followed by the March freezing rain and sleet cycle....I should be able to sow some lettuce in the garden come April.

While watching my father plow my driveway creating a snow banking the size of the garage my mailman delivered the seeds I ordered! I'm so glad I shoveled early so he could make it to the door lol. Anyway I got so excited I had to start something so I planted a few sweet basil seeds in a few small pots. Maybe I will start some other herbs tomorrow.

I can't take the snow anymore!!! To brighten up my spirits I started my tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, marjoram, parsley & oregano yesterday. In a week or two, I'll start broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi & basil.

Dale, I like the little toe head helping you in the garden. He's a cutie!

Onions! They are just starting to sprout now. I planted Yellow Sweet Spanish about 5 days ago. My basil is also doing well that I started a week ago. This snow storm is depressing me so I will be looking to see what else I can start early, Cabbage maybe?

Spinach, lettuce and Cherry Toms for Containers (for my Gram who can't get out there any longer). Basil and Parsley both doing well. Today I started my Broccoli, Cauliflower, and cabbage. Oh and onions last week!

I'm doing 100% organic this year for my tomatoes & bell peppers, if not everything. I'm going to start both this weekend inside. I'll post some more detail early next week & seedling pics towards the end of the month. It's good to be back on GardenWeb. I'm looking forward to a very productive container garden this year. :) And, one way or another, I will defeat the spider mites and get some hot peppers this year! Later all.

Here's a few pictures.

Peppers, various types.
{{gwi:20739}}

Cauliflower and Broccoli:
{{gwi:20740}}

Bok Choi:
{{gwi:20741}}

Tomatoes were started this weekend and some are already coming up.

Before I list the things I've started I want to say that I have had 100% success germinating Johnny's Selected Seeds. Other places I ordered over the net were: New England Seed Co., Victory Seed Co., Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Millington Seed Co., Tomato Growers Supply Co., Trade Winds Fruit.

I have three 4' X 9' raised beds. Two for cool crops. Later two for Tomatoes and one for peppers. The beans and other things will be planted in these beds as companion kind of plantings. I use crop covers and these will be staying on all summer. I'll remove the covers in the morning and they'll go back on about 10am (after the bees have left to cool their hives) A collection of plastic pop bottles filled with water hold down the crop covers. A collection of smaller glass bottles are placed wherever they can fit to accommodate our cold nights and frosts and freezes. There are 15 stakes, 18" high in each of the beds. Jute twine is criss-crossed every which way. This keeps the crop covers from whipping around so much and also will hold up the sheets and blankets I have to cover the beds with when there is going to be a frost or freeze. I use the plastic bottles that have held drinking water and put very small needle-size holes into the bottles to serve as my watering style. I plan to keep this watering style up -- it worked well with watering the rose plants and citrus trees last year (using gallon milk jugs) It conserves on the water big time and allows me to control exactly what gets watered. I also use this kind of watering to put the fish emulsion and epson salts or whatever into the ground. No problem with getting the leaves wet either.

All of this is very time consuming -- I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with the pace. This is my first year with vegetables -- you probably can tell :) My husband says he thinks I'm overdoing "this whole thing". But I'm just learning, so there you go.

Cool Crops:
After germinating, these were placed in front of a window and got so leggy that I threw them out and started over. Now everything gets put a few inches below flouresant lights.
Some are now in the raised gardens and covered with crop covers. When we've had freezes and frosts each bed gets covered with four sheets and thermal blankets.

Early Scarlet Globe Radish, Victory
Early Wonder Tall Top Round Red Beet, Johnny's
Round Red Ace F1 Hybrid Beet, Johnny's
Rio Verde Hybrid Cabbage, New England Seed
Salad Bowl Lettuce, New England Seed
Buttercruch Lettuce, New England Seed
Romaine COS Lettuce, New England Seed
Early Scarlet Globe Radish, Victory
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach, Victory
Savoyed Leaf Tyee F1 Hybrid Spinach, Johnny's

Tomato: The Solar Fire doesn't want to get going. The Sun Gold is doing the best -- now about 5" tall. The Sun Gold gets very good reviews and is hard to come by (so is the Solar Fire). The Purple Cherokee is suppose to be fantastic tasting -- comeing from someone that works an organic business for profit.
Amish Paste
Eva Black Ball
Brandywine
Black Brandywine
Purple Cherokee
Solar Fire VFFF Hybrid, Tomatoe Growers Supply
Sun Gold Cherry

Pepper:
All of these had just germinated and were setting out on the patio and a strong wind blew them off the table two days ago. Rats! All gone. There isn't going to be room under the lights to start these seeds over. I'll just have to figure on planting only one of each.

Cayenne, Long Red, Victory
Golden California Wonder, Victory
Hungarian Yellow Wax (Hot Banana), Victory
Hungarian Sweet, (Sweet Banana), Victory
Pimento, Victory

Insectuary & Companion Plantings:
some seeds were planted in peat pots today and the rest will be direct-planted in a few weeks when I know for sure there will be no more frosts.

Queen Sophia French Marigold, Johnny's
Alaska Mix Nasturtium, Johnny's
Genovese Basil, Ghorganics.com
Sweet Basil, Ferry Morse
Caraway, Victory
German Chamomile, Victory
Dill Bouquet, Victory
Florence Fennel, Victory
Feverfew, E-Bay
Flying Saucers Morning Glory, E-Bay
Italian Parsley, Victory
Shasta Daisy, Victory
Spearmint, Victory
Creeping Thyme, Victory
Yarrow, E-Bay

Beans: Only the Contenders and Scarlet Runners are still around. I know better now, but I thought I had waited long enough for germination and decided they weren't going to germinate and threw them out.

Blue Lake 274 Hybrid, Victory
Contender Bush Bean, Victory
McCaslin 42 Pole Bean, Baker Creek
Roma II Bush Bean, Victory
Scarlet Runner Bean, Millinton Seed

Pray for me :)