Yippee! It's Spring!!

Happy Spring!  Posts will become much more regular now that there's lots happening in my attempts to live off my small parcel.  A quick update on the veggie garden:


Seeds vs Seedlings
This year I have thoroughly embraced starting my veggies from seeds.  Maybe it was the plethora of seed catalogs that started showing up in my mail in late December portending of a long summer to come of fresh, homegrown produce that inspired me.  Or perhaps it is just that I am always up for a challenge.  Either way, I culled the catalogs and placed a small order of various veggies.

Many people ask me if it is really worth starting seedlings from seeds rather than going to the local nursery and buying seedlings.  Certainly, it is a lot easier to buy seedlings, plunk them in the ground, fertilize and water them, and await fresh produce.  However, the advantage to starting from seeds are two-fold.  First and foremost, you can get way more variety from seeds.  Pick up any seed catalog of visit any seed company's website (I like Territorial Seed and Baker Creek Heirloom), and you will be amazed.  Who knew there were a zillion types of tomatoes, peppers, beens, etc?  Also, it is hard to find heirloom seedlings, but very easy to find heirloom seeds to start.

Second, is the sense of reward you get seeing the seeds sprout and grow into vigorous plants.  To me this is way more satisfying than purchasing seedlings.  However, having said all of that, if  you are new to veggie gardening and don't want to hassle with starting seeds to get results, by all means go out and purchase seedlings and enjoy the fruits of your effort.

What I have learned

Last month I started purple broccoli, brussel sprouts, and Veronica Romanesco (a type of cauliflower) from seeds in my kitchen.  After the first batch of seeds sprouted into very long and leggy little plants that couldn't hold themselves up, I ditched them and invested in a few resources to have greater success.  

First, I set up a grow lamp.  Basically this is a fluorescent light that you can raise up as the plants grow.  Mine I borrowed from friends, but they are easy and inexpensive to construct or you can purchase kits online (check out http://www.territorialseed.com/product/12132/s for a very good one that looks easy to assemble).  Fluorescent lights also use very little electricity, so raising seeds this way will only cost pennies.  

My kitchen "greenhouse"

Second, I purchased The New Seed-Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel.  This is an incredible resource for step-by-step detailed instructions for raising all kinds of plants from seed to healthy, productive plant.  Following the instructions the second time around for me led to results that were 100 times better than my first batch.  

Planting Out

Two weeks ago, we took a trip to a nearby city compost lot where we were able to purchase a yard (about a medium pickup truckload) of beautiful organic compost for nearly nothing!!  Check out your local city resources for a great source for inexpensive dirt, mulch, etc.  Way cheaper than going to Home Depot or your local nursery and lugging bags upon bags of dirt and compost to fill the beds! Best of all, many cities offer free dirt and organic compost if you can pick it up (they made charge a small fee to load it for you).

We turned over the beds, pulling out any grubs and weeds, and added about 6" of fresh compost.  We had a lot of compost from our haul leftover, which we placed around fruit trees and shrubs in the yard and shared the rest with neighbors.

After the beds were prepared and I was able to plant the first spring seedlings outside, thereby freeing up space under my grow lamp, I started my summer crop - tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.  The broccoli, Romanesco, and brussel sprouts have transitioned well to the garden, helped along by some late winter rain.  Now I am awaiting warmer temperatures (we are currently averaging about 65 degrees right now) for them to really take off!

Please follow the blog and share your gardening stories with me!  Also, if you have friends or family getting into gardening or who are experienced green thumbs, forward the link so they can follow as well!!