Starting Seeds Indoors

Now that my coffee table is overflowing with seed catalogs, I'm itching for the gardening season to begin. And it has!

I'm starting seeds inside my apartment now, so that by summertime I'll be harvesting lots of goodies. Some seeds do well with a jumpstart in a sunny window (like in my home), a greenhouse, or under grow lamps in a basement or garage. Leeks, onions, and brassicas like broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower all have long seasons that can begin inside, long before the snow melts and the soil warms. 

I use seed starting pellets and lettuce containers for my operation. The seed pellets are soaked in water until they puff up and become a soft, moist home for the seeds. The plastic lettuce boxes get a few drainage holes poked in the bottom for drainage and are placed on top of the lids to catch any overflow from watering. 

I cover the boxes with plastic wrap until they germinate and then open them up when they've all sprouted. 

The purple sprouting broccoli came up in just a few days. What other seeds did I start inside?

I started Purple Sprouting Broccoli from Pinetree Garden Seeds (2012), Crimson Forest Bunching Onion from Pinetree Garden Seeds (2012), King Richard Leek from Botanical Interests (2015), and Bloomsdale Long-Standing Spinach from Burpee (2009).  I didn't buy any new seeds this year except the leek. While going through my gardening supplies, I realized that I already have a huge selection from previous years. I'm being thrifty this season and growing what I have. So, we'll see if those 2009 spinach seeds do anything. 

Here's to Garden Season 2015! Get growing!

Preparing the Garden for Spring

How do you prepare the garden for planting?

They're calling for a lot of rain this weekend in northern New Jersey so I thought it would be an opportune time to get the garden ready for the season. It's a good idea to clean out and have some steady rain before sowing any seeds. In the past I've prepped the garden and sowed in the same day and then had really untidy rows once the soil settled. Rain will help settle the soil and make for much neater rows in the long term. This would also be a great time to add some compost to the soil to give everything a boost. I don't have any on hand so I'll  top dress with some later in the season. 

I never cleaned out the plants or the cages at the end of last fall, so that was top of the to-do list today. What else? The fig trees next door left a thick blanket of leaves that had to be cleared out and composted. I plan to replace the trellis so I wanted to disassemble the old one. The brick boarder and the stone pathways also needed attention. And I wanted to divide and replant the garlic bulbs that I forgot to harvest last year (oops).

Now it's ready to get a good soaking this weekend and receive some carrot seeds next week. I admit I did slip in some purple bunching onions from Pinetree Garden Seeds. The packet was from 2012 so who knows what the germination rate will be. 

Baby garlic, divided and transplanted for the 2014 season. 

I dug up this carrot from under the fig leaf blanket and tried it. Yuck. It had no flavor after 9 months in the ground and many days with frozen soil. So I don't recommend overwintering carrots in the ground. 

Instant Insalada

The harvests are definitely getting more colorful!

Summertime in the Garden

Big and Green.  The garden is enjoying the heat but could use a bit more rain.  I try to get there every other day but when the temps are in the 90's, the plants get thirsty.  The big leafy things are my volunteer sunflowers.  They'll be yellow with red and rust colors mixed in.  One in the center extends way beyond the top of the photo and trellis.  I think it's close to 8' tall.  There isn't a whole lot going on right now in the plot in terms of harvesting or flowers.  Everything is in production but not quite there yet.

The first Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes are coming in.  I've got three plants and they should all be big producers.  Depending on what i harvest, I might try making some sauce with them.

These red onions can be used as scallions or small onions.  I've picked some early and chopped them into salads and stirfry dishes.  If they last through fall, they might have more of a bulb on the end.  This is my first year growing onions and I'd probably get sets or plants in future seasons if I want actual onions in the summer.  I grew these from seed but they've taken longer than I thought to get this far.

I've got several 7" long cucumbers that are just starting to fill out, from the bottom up.  I won't be making pickles, but we will have our fair share of cucumber based salads.  Maybe I'll be able to contribute a little more homegrown bounty to this year's batch of Asian Gazpacho!

Harvest!

Everything is big and bushy in the garden.  I've managed to stay on top of the cabbage looper invasion and harvested lots of broccoli greens today for Mao Mao and I.  The cherry tomato plants are full of blossoms and a few fruits and my Cherokee Purple is flowering.  The shuyo cucumber has several 5" long fruits on it but they are about as thick as a pencil at this point.  The beans are just beginning to produce and look like they could be a prolific variety.  I threw a few more carrot seeds into the ground in the bare spots despite the unfavorable moon planting conditions.

The harvest today was surprisingly bountiful: garlic, kale, broccoli greens, carrots, purple onions, beans, and peas.  I enjoyed most of it for lunch.  Ahh, the sweet rewards of my gardening efforts!

Seedlings in the window

The broccoli, onions, and wild flowers are up. The lettuce leaf basil didn't sprout so I replaced it with cucumbers.