You may be wondering when to start your precious seeds? Of course, seed packages have instructions such as 6-8 weeks before last frost or once the ground can be worked or even start 4 weeks early OR in situ. To better understand these directions, here’s a crash course on the whens and wheres of planting. […]
This article offers practical advice on starting eggplants and pepper seedlings, covering topics like lighting setups, overcoming light deficiencies, thinning, transplanting, and hardening off. It provides insights into using natural light, fluorescent tubes, and grow lights, emphasizing the importance of adequate light for photosynthesis. The author discusses challenges when starting seeds without artificial light and suggests solutions, such as window sills, winter-sowing, and alternative containers. The role of unheated greenhouses, containers, and grow boxes for larger plants or later starts is explored, along with tips for managing temperature. The article touches on container and growing mix selection, germination requirements, growing on, thinning, transplanting, and the continuous process of hardening off. It concludes by inviting readers to suggest additional topics for future posts. Overall, it serves as a comprehensive guide for seedling cultivation at various stages.
There are so many wonderful looking vegetable varieties that it can be easy to ‘buy all the seed.’ Unless you have a team, a tractor and a farm, it’s unlikely that you are really going to ‘grow all the seed,’ never mind ‘harvest all that veg!’ Leaving you to decide what to grow. We’re going […]
… to any garden question is “It depends.” “How early should I start tomatoes?” “Should I mount my potatoes?” “Do I need to succession sow lettuce?” “How far apart should I space my cabbage?” “Is no dig the best method?” “What grows well here?” “Does it eat all the plants?” “Should I trellis melons?” “Will […]
If you have either a big enough garden or just the inclination, you may have thought about growing for storage. This requires a shift in thinking toward not just food that is wholesome and delicious fresh but also those varieties that store well in a variety of ways. Besides canning and its close cousin pickling […]
In our zone 5a, fall gardening can be a great time to plant cool-season crops. We hit our first frost between the first week of October and mid-October. Fall crops can be planted between late August and early September to harvest just before winter sets in. Following crops are a great start for a fall […]