i‘m glad you posted this. I wasn’t sure if it was too late for me to start seeds using a heating mat and dome or if I should just use Aerogarden, but am waiting for grow sponges to be delivered. I have frozen any decent leftover garlic from summer harvest 2019 and am dehydratIng the rest.

Hi Mary,

Late but not too late, although you might be time ahead to seed directly into the garden in your zone, at least the hardier types, thus avoiding transplant shocks.

I am in Minnesota Zone 4 and I am actually a few weeks later than I might have been. I shoot to seed directly in the garden as early in April as possible for hardy produce, transplant hardy started plants from inside mid to late April, with tender transplants by mid May and sweet potatoes by the end of May. In zone 6 you could probably beat that by some weeks. I intend to start tomatoes, peppers, eggplant under lights in the next week. The only things I need the heat pad to start are the peppers and maybe the eggplant. So tomatoes will get it too, all three in a single flat.

I go by this thought, even a late garden is better than no garden. One nice thing about starting under lights is that you control the weather and can tailor your conditions to the plant types you want.

To show you how far we are behind you, we have snow, plowable snow, forecast for Easter Sunday,

Hey Dutch - It looks like the snow is just starting in the twin cities at daybreak. We had some storms move through KC a few hours ago and expect more during the day. At least the snow should be gone by next weekend but you have some lows in the teens to look forward to midweek :-(

Yes, you are a little late getting started on the cool season crops but you should be able to get away with it most years. My brother doesn't have any problems growing greens and brassicas all summer in his Wisconsin garden. My brother started his peppers last week and is starting tomatoes this week.

Hi Jack,

It is definitely snowing and has been all day.

Those seeds that I started two days ago are nearly all sprouting already. If I didn't know better I would say that some of those have germinate rates at 120% - HA! That caught me by surprise. I did not expect such a rapid emergence.

I am not really so far behind though. In years past it was quite common for the ground to still be at least partially frozen by mid April. Can't work outside yet and this is actually my fourth flat for the garden. The earlier one for the hardy stuff has some lettuce with three leaves already with broccoli and napa not far behind. I need to do one more flat: the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and basil. I expect to have beds ready by next weekend for outside seeds and the hardy transplants as soon as they are ready. I do not think tender transplants by mid May is too late, and the sweet potatoes by the first of June.

I kinda went overboard with some 4 different types of lettuce, 4 or 5 of various colors of sprouting broccoli and three colors of cauliflower. The broccolini types intrigue me and the sprouting cauliflower also does. And the variation in colors ... I intend to treat my vegetable garden visually like a flower border with different colors, textures and heights.

The biggest surprise is the size of the scallions that have wintered over for me again this year. They stand nearly knee high already and are as thick as small leeks. Originally they were scallions right off the supermarket shelf with roots attached. I just stuck em in the ground and away they went.

Pardon the babble. We have stay at home orders here in Minnesota and my employer has ordered us to work from home; so I am for all practical purposes a shut-in and it is a drag!

Hi Jack, still snowing. I'm guessing 5 or 6" total so far with an accumulation over everything of at least 4". This should all melt off quick though. A real nice drink for my garlics. This should soak right in, every drop of it.

Everything I am going to start is in the flats now, including peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and basil.

That is it. The earliest flat have some lettuce and cabbages with 4 leaves and more. So there should be some ready to go in the ground during the next week. Now I need to work on the beds outside. Still a little chilly but that is changing rapidly.