Seeding, pricking, and more seeding

Things are getting hot and heavy in my little basement greenhouse.  I had an excellent weekend of outdoor gardening so the indoor seeding waited for another couple days.  I hope I don't regret putting it off with plants too small to transplant later.  I was able to prick out my peppers, Celosia, and Heliotrope.  I had to make decisions about only keeping what I need instead of saving every plant.  Sometimes it is hard to toss some things on the compost pile, but I make myself feel better that I saved the best of them for planting.  My last batch of coleus is also almost fully rooted.  The first batch is ready to be nipped back to promote side shoots.  This makes a better plant over having a single stem heading up.  Try it, you'll like it!  Tomatoes are almost ready to be upgraded, too.

I have also had to make some decisions about what stays in and what goes out.  The violas are small but hardy.  A few of the seeds I am sowing now also like it cooler so outside they go.  I have a rolling rack that can move in and out of the garage for night time protection.  I think the petunias are next as they are also a hardy plant once they get hardened off.  The geraniums, jasmine and potted mandevilla vines are already on their way to complete outdoor happiness.

The garden beds are filling up with early crops as well.  I put in seeds for carrots, beets, chard, kale, radicchio, and pak choy.  I also put in my baby cabbages (an actual variety, not a size descriptor), romaine lettuce, onions, and radicchio plants.  All have been given a row cover to help them acclimate to the conditions.  With temps around 80 today, they are also going to be ready for water.  Time to break out the hoses until the rain barrels get their first fill.  I did not turn them until this weekend as we still had nights in the 30's when we were getting all that rain.

I dug in my asparagus roots on Sunday with compost from last year.  I used some of the soil from the trench to pot up my honey berries and kiwi vines as they came bare root.  The areas that they are to be planted in are in prep stage.  The plants were starting to leaf out, so holding them in pots is better for the health of the plants.  The chicken-in-the-woods mushroom plugs are also going into the same area.  These can wait in the frig for longer.

Attempting to nudge the cold from the garden soil

I am making an attempt to try and make the Good Friday planting date.  I stretched some greenhouse plastic over the beds to try and warm things up a little faster.  We have finally broke through the clouds this afternoon with some sunshine which will help melt a little of the snow out there.
Organic Gardening recently had an article about solarization which is different than what I am try to accomplish.  Solarization would use the same technique, but would be implemented during hot weather so the soil would essential cook.  This would help kill weed seeds and "bad" fungus problems to "clean" the soil up for planting beds. I may be successful in germinating some of the weeds in the beds doing this now, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
I will keep you posted on the progress in my attempt to warm up my garden beds early.

Early seeds

I am not ready to order all my seeds...yet...but I have been looking at some to mail in soon.  Things you need to start early if you really want to do them yourself:

Onions:  I am convinced that the best onions come from seeds. We grow long day onions in Wisconsin, for growing during our long days of summer. Short day is for warmer zones, think winter there when days are shorter. Check the time to maturity, but I put my little onion seedlings out in April after starting them in February

Lisianthus:  This beautiful flower takes a long time to bloom and January is not too early to start it.  It is a very tiny seed, a very tiny seedling and doesn't seem to grow very fast.

Herbs:  If you want some indoor herbs, start them now for an indoor crop.  They will need supplemental light.

Greens:  At least start thinking about them.  If you have a cold frame set up in your garden, you may be putting some seedlings in there the end of February or March, depending on the temperatures.  I still don't have my cold frame, but I am thinking of how to utilize that nice, sunny spot on the south side this year, possibly some straw bales and a Lexan cover. TBA

Pansies and violas:  These are cool season crops and if you want to grow your own, you have to start early.

Look at the seed packs and the days to harvest.  Count back to when you want to harvest to when you need to start.  If it is over 100 days, you are probably looking at an early start.