It's Time!

I did my seed inventory yesterday and have had my garden plans kicking around for some time now. I ordered some new seeds from Veseys as well as Annapolis Seeds. I saved a lot of my own seeds last year from kale, bok choy, arugula, lettuces, parsnips, marigolds, morning glories and petunias...maybe even some others. I'm excited about these seeds as fresh seeds seem to germinate really well.  

I will be starting celery and celeriac indoors today as well as some ground cherries and peppers. I debated starting some red onions indoors, as is usually recommended, and in the end decided to direct seed them. As long as you get them in nice and early, as soon as the soil can be worked, I have noticed no major difference between onion seeds started indoors as transplants and onions that have been direct seeded. Which is great, mainly because starting onions indoors can be a bit of a pain. They need to be trimmed several times before planting out, fertilized regularly and generally aren't that happy growing in cells. They also can take up a lot of room if you plant as many onions as we do. I will start some leeks indoors though, they seem to be the one allium crop that truly needs that jump.  

The ground cherries I like to start super early, as I find when they are already producing when they go outdoors, you're able to harvest more of their bounty. Almost every year the ground cherry plants are loaded with the little berry like fruits right when we get hit with frost and cooler temperatures. Being a member of the tomato family, they don't like that at all and much of the ground cherries can go to waste, except here where the chickens eat them. Starting them nice and early, much earlier than tomatoes, seems to help increase the amount we eat and decrease the chickens share.  You have to be very, very careful when moving around the ground cherry plants, same as tomatoes, as they get larger. I can't tell you how many ground cherry stems I've snapped and saved by re-rooting in water. 

I will be starting some petunias indoors sooner than later but that's about it for now. You may see lots of encouragement that 'now is the time to start all your seeds' although it's really not if you live where I live. There is such thing as starting your seeds way too early! Remember you need to move these around and provide sufficient light, best not get too eager as I have done many, many years. It truly pays to wait to start tomatoes, they do not need one minute longer than 6-8 weeks before planting out unless you are using a 'wall of water', greenhouse or other tomato season extender. Planting warm weather loving crops out too early can actually harm the plant. 

For those that are growing smaller gardens, are lacking in time or any other reason that makes buying transplants a better option, go for that! I never started my own celery until a couple years ago. I just always bought transplants from the local nursery. When I started growing artichokes, which I'm not growing this year :( , I started my own celery too since the lights were on at that time. 

My trusty seed trunk and my garden plans.