What are you growing?

I started my tomato, pepper, and basil seeds couple weeks ago on top of the garden shed fridge. They've all germinated and been moved to the cold frame. Hope to start potting up in another week.

I'll lay out the seed load tomorrow...see what i have and go for it. (had to clean up a table surface spot today)

I'll start a tray of leeks and a few onions tomorrow. Maybe a few flowers. While I'm at it, I'll plant some kale and Asian greens in a window box in the greenhouse under a light...we're craving fresh greens. Tomatoes, peppers and cole crops won't go in until the end of March.

Like KatieC, I won't be starting tomatoes for at least a month, or peppers either. I know my garlic is still snuggled under a blanket of snow but I've been looking at the seed catalogs and fruit tree advertisements, thinking about planting sweet cherries and more blueberries this year and how to fence them off to keep them away from the turkeys, the geese, the deer, the bears, the ducks. It's like Wild Kingdom here, and everything wants to eat SOMETHING I planted. This year I'm betting it's the raspberries I planted last year. (sigh)

Annie

Waiting a bit. Last week I rearranged furniture and jammed a set of shelves in the SE corner of my house. Hung the growlights and dug out the seedling mats. Started to go through seeds and suddenly realized that I am going away for a week. Disappointed and cranky with cabin fever. I will have people coming to feed cats but asking for them to fiddle with baby plants is too much. Soon though....

It's too early for me too, but I did place a new seed order that should arrive any day -- I've been wanting to try King of the North peppers!

Just because we've had some awesome weather with temperatures in the 70's the last few days, and it "feels" like I should be starting the garden, 45-years ago, 2-20-1971, we had a blizzard that shut Kansas down for 3-days - so that's a reminder winter isn't necessarily over YET. The best I can do is to get out and rake more leaves in this beautiful weather. Evidently, we are the only people on our block who own a rake and know how to use it; and a couple days with 40-50 mph winds this week brought new opportunity for raking.

I did start some thyme and chives under the grow light where I grow wheatgrass, and ironically, it's almost too warm to grow wheatgrass (you need indoor temperatures to be lower than 68°F or you quickly develop mold in the pots). But alas, garden fever is at hand.

I'm zone 6A. I have leeks up--they're soooo slow--and will be starting onions soon. Then cabbages, then peppers, then at the end of March, tomatoes. Stuff started too early never does well, and I worked out the timing years ago. But, today, I'm sowing parsley and spinach in the open garden. They'll take several weeks to germinate, but then they'll take off.

I've started broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers and swiss chard. This afternoon I plan on starting some celery and herbs. I will probably be starting some tomatoes soon. I have lots of varieties of tomatoes I'm going to grow this year. Have some ginger spouting that needs to be planted. Also want to start some sweet potatoes rooting so I will get my own slips. That's maybe half of what I will grow this year. Today its 68 degrees where I live in south central Indiana. Know it won't last, but nice anyway.

Madonna

I'm not going to plant any seeds indoors. I did that for many years. Did a test once with tomatoes planted indoors in Feb and some directly in the soil on Apr 15, our "last frost" date. They all came up, they all did well, but the ones outside were the first to produce fruit and had heavier yields. All the seeds were from the same packets so there was not a chance of variables.

My sister told me to clean house in Feb and Mar so that I could rest on my laurels through the spring and be outdoors playing in the dirt.

I do jump start my seeds Apr 1 by laying them out in damp paper towels in a baggie so I just plant sprouted seeds with 100% "germination". All my herbs get planted with shredded paper mulch in garden pots to sit halfway in the soil with less weeding. I space them out so that the weed whacker can merrily chop around the pots for pathways.

Nancy

Potted up seedlings yesterday. Should be ready to transplant in 3-4 weeks.

You all are so ambitious! We usually just buy our plants. I do have two sweet potatoes sprouting and looking good. They are just in my kitchen window. As they grow I will just peel them off of the potato and stick them in more water to grow roots.

Sue

I'm in SE Wisconsin, zone 5 and while it may be early I've already got broccoli and cauliflower seedlings coming up. Yesterday I started 11 tomatoes. Last year my husband and I built two 4x14 raised beds. I've got them covered now so the soil is starting to thaw and warm up. We can treat them like a greenhouse once the soil warms enough. I'm hoping to translplant the broccoli and cauliflower in a couple of weeks, peas will be started next week as will the kales, lettuces etc. We're really hoping to have the tomatoes in by April 1 st. If they fail though I'll have plenty for back up.

I winter sow where I am (Virginia) and started some of my flower seeds back in January. I really have a high success rate with this method and I don't have to baby or harden off seedlings. No dampening off either. Just set it and forget it outside in a covered, clear container until nature says they are ready to grow.

There's info about winter sowing here: Winter Sown

I think I am going to start my more tender veggies seeds this week: tomatoes, summer squash, herbs.

I would have loved to have winter sown, but the weather has been so bi-polar this year that everything I sowed would have been killed. I do have all my tomato seeds started in the house as well as more warmer weather veggies. I hope we all have absolutely wonderful gardens this year.

Madonna