Perhaps a bit premature but anything to keep me from watching the current fecalshow that is DC right now. So I killed my serrano and habanero. Sunny day, thought I'd set them out to catch some rays.... and then forgot to drag them back in when the sun went down. D.E.A.D. Oh well, least the green onions are thriving in there. I set up an indoor rack with LED full spectrum lights, cheap ones but they seem to be doing a good job. Took the empty salad containers, put holes in them with a soldering iron, layered shredded paper, peat, perlite, egg shell, coffee grounds, and a bit of potting soil mix, then planted them with assorted lettuces, spinach, and kale. Also have little Thumbelina carrots in one. Used a few more for starting onions, and then cut a coffee creamer bottle in half to turn it into a little wicking container for some basil that's just now poking up out of the dirt. This one was the first one I planted. In hindsight I should have made the dirt bed deeper. I'll add more to it after I cut all this. These are in old microwave TV dinner trays, heh. Romaine in the rear and some kind of lettuce the seed company sent me free with an order. I've *never* put any effort into growing lettuce, spinach, kale, or carrots, nor have I ever tried to grow anything edible indoors, so there's no doubt some learning curves to be found here, but so far so good. I also have a couple of sweet potatoes in a container on a lower shelf, tucked into dirt to make slips.
I'm thinking if I keep 5 or 6 of those mixed greens trays running, starting a new one each week, I can keep us in salads and stop buying from the store. I may be underestimating what we go through.
Looks good ditch witch. Been getting my own garden going red and white onions planted along with leeks. got cauliflower and 4 types of lettuce in a raised bed with plastic over it. Another raised bed with Brussel sprouts, other raised beds have beets carrots and spinach in(haven't sprouted yet), shallots and garlic also. Green house have 30 tomatoes sprouted, broccoli. The satsuma orange tree in the green house is flowering. This year I have gotten an early start, maybe overly pessimistic thinking going to need it this year. Took inventory have plenty of canning jars need to stock up on lids
Planning on a much larger garden this year. Should be recovered enough from this latest surgery by spring to start. The aunts and uncle are getting on up there and with their health problems Sass and I are going to have to pick up the slack for for them. Their share will come in providing their lifetime of knowledge and if able, to help out a bit with the canning. Sass's cousin and his wife will be adding to the labor end as well.
Get any seeds and starts you need early. Last year, onion sets, plants and seed potato's were hard to find or gone around here in April. Regular garden seeds were in short supply too.
I'm seeing a lot of "Temporarily Out Of Stock" on stuff from the online companies I normally buy from, but so far the seed racks at the big box home improvement stores and TSC are full. I'd be curious to know how many of last year's pandemic lockdown gardeners threw their hands up in disgust after learning a garden wasn't as easy as planting a pumpkin in an apartment window. (yeah, someone did that) For sure I'm starting all my own onions and potatoes this year though, and I already bought all my seed at the start of winter last year so now I'm just picking up extra packets here and there to add to the stash.
So far I haven't had any problem ordering seeds from catalogs --- Vermont seed company, Southern Exposure seeds
Have had good luck with Meyer Lemon, Key limes and Satsuma orange in large pots put them in the green house in winter and move them outside in summer. Every year get a good crop of limes, and lemons. Limes make great key lime pies.
Way too early for us here in the frozen North to even think about starts. I'd love to life someplace where the only thing you shovel off the driveway in the winter is sunshine.... The greenhouse is up and ready, just need to have the snow go away & the sun to come out long enough to thaw the ground....like late May.
nice job on the lettuce etc as microgreens, they look delicious! @ditch witch I've been growing my greens for 2 years like this in old egg cartons and some o'd jello containers i made into mini wicking beds. I just use potting soil... never put in perlite... are you using perline so you dont have to water as often? I love watercress, supper easy to grow and grows quickly under alot of not optimal conditions. I till think sprouting is also a good option. Three of the easiest things to sprout are sunflower seeds and fengreek, and buckwheat Sprouting- Using Stored Grain, Nuts, Seeds to Optimize Health
I added the perlite because the way the trays are sitting, they're directly over the light bars for the rack below them. LED but they still put off a lot of heat so it's like using a heat mat, and since I have them really overseeded they dry out fairly quickly. A good thing, actually, since I have had issues with fungus gnats in the past and don't want to deal with them again. Originally I'd planned to set them all in nursery trays and just keep water in the trays but it seems almost all my trays have drain holes in them now after the Great Fodder Escapade of 2013 (or whatever year it was I tried that). I've been sprouting mung beans because I cook a lot of Asian style stirfry and like having them in, but otherwise I don't fiddle with sprouts much.
heat mats... just depends on where you live. if you get the plants too big too early hardening them off is problematic if you live in a cold environment. cold frames are the best in colder environments because they follwo the local weather but you have hardier plants at the right time. just my opinon... every garden is an experiment and you have to juggle time, energy and $$$ invested. I;m a lazy gardener.. i want to put the damn plants in the ground, water, fertilize, and harvest
Granddad used to say not to grow anything you can't eat. Now wife spends more on flowers then We do on the garden. Looks great, not get me wrong she does a wonderful job. Looking to start flowers early to have them for after frost. Thanks for the cold frame idea.
I did a job for a man years ago , the man lived in town on maybe a 1/2 acre. He had his back yard terraced off , and when spring came,, he planted nothing but tomatoes. His plants were 6 to 8 foot tall , all of them. There is no way he ate them all ,, he may have sold them at a farmer's market,, give them away ,, im not sure . I asked him why just tomatoes,, he said it was just a hobby.
Back in the day, Brits had "kitchen gardens" - Here's some photos. Not may folks today day can afford a two acre walled garden... Top kitchen gardens
We plant 35+ tomato plants the wife cans marinara sauce, salsa and okra and tomatoes sees us through the winter-- can never have to many tomatoes.
