Tilling Part of the Garden for Spinach Plants

My spinach plants are the first seeds to be planted, the first to be placed outside, and the first to be transplanted into the garden.  They are very tolerant of the cold and are the perfect plant to put outside during this time.  They are thriving in their pots and I hope that they continue thriving in the garden for as long as possible.

Tilling the garden is one of the first things that I have to do before I can place my spinach plants into the ground.  I did exactly that today and I am looking forward to placing all of my spinach plants into the garden tomorrow or Saturday at the latest. 

I didn't need to do the whole garden because I only have about 22 plants and they do not require that much room to thrive.  I will only do the rest of the garden once the weather warms up and it is time to begin sowing seeds.








My onions are next and that is another thing I got today.  My onions do not take as long as my spinach because I am only placing bulbs, while my spinach I have to remove from the containers and place them perfectly in the ground with all the nutrients they require for the season.

Using Fluorescent Lights for More Indoor Planting

Now that my spinach plants no longer need fluorescent lights to continue growing I can now use this light for different seeds.  I do the same thing every and once my spinach are just about ready to stay outside all night I can use these lights for the bulk of my garden.

Although the bulk of the garden is in the form of tomato plants I like to think that the ones I planted today are the second part of my garden.  These will make up the second half of the garden not including corn, beans, and carrots. 

The one thing I want to mention before I discuss the various seeds I planted this evening is the one new plant I added this season.  I normally grow the same thing each year, but I always like to add something new to the garden.  This year I am going with planting another melon.  Honeydew is going to be the one fruit I will be focusing on this season.  I though it would be a good addition because you can make a great fruit salad using watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew.

Honeydew seeds on the left and cantaloupe seeds on the right.

I didn't think I needed to add too many seeds for my honeydew, but I thought my cantaloupe might need an extra one.  This is just in case some of them may not sprout.  Hopefully they will all sprout because there is always room to remove some of them.  This is only in case more than one of them grow in each pot.

Peppers, cucumbers, and eggplant are other seeds that I planted today.  They are quite simple and since they are a little bit older than my melon seeds I needed to plant several seeds in each pot.  Four for cucumbers, five for eggplants, and six for peppers.  I have found that older peppers do not sprout well and that is the big reason for adding many into one single container.

Planting Tomato Seeds Indoors at the Right Time

One of the most important elements in gardening is time and that is something that will be different in whatever region you happen to live.  For me March is the month when I need to start tomatoes indoors and they should be ready to go into the soil by May to June.  Most of the time I will the garden in May and by the middle of the month I will be placing many of my indoor plants into the soil.

This includes not only fruits like my tomatoes, but others such as flowers and vegetables.  Right now I only planted my steakhouse, Roma, and cherry tomato seeds.  I won't be planting vegetables until a couple of weeks or so.  I still have one fluorescent light that I can use once my spinach plants no longer need it for growing.

I have been putting spinach outside since last week and after the rain over the past couple of days the sun finally showed itself this afternoon.  I made sure that I put them outside and right now they are doing good and I want to get them into the soil very soon before they become pot bound and might start going to seed or bolting.

At the moment I have just planted tomato seeds that were able to fit under the lights with no more room for any other pots or containers.  This means I can't plant anymore because the windowsills are all filled along with my fluorescent lights.

You can see that they fit perfectly under the lights and is mainly due to the appropriate containers that I only use for tomatoes.  They are just the perfect size for these plants and as long as they sprout they will last in the soil that I gave them and the space they will have in these pots.

Spinach Placed Outside and Flowers Sprouting Indoors

Whenever warm weather or at least sunny days occur I like to place as many plants outside as possible depending on various conditions.  For instance right now it is almost springtime, yet this doesn't mean that the weather is going to get warmer right away.  It will still be too cool for most of my plants except for spinach which is capable of withstanding cooler temperatures at least in the lower 40's to upper 30's (Fahrenheit) at the lowest.

They grow best in the 50's to 60's (Fahrenheit), but I do place them outside when it is much cooler.  Since last week was warm and sunny it was a great opportunity to place my spinach outside to enjoy the bright sun.  This week it hasn't been sunny at all and mostly rainy.  This week they haven't gone outside, but I hope to put them outdoors soon to adjust to cloudy weather as well as rainy weather.

They are growing very nicely at the moment and I will soon be placing them outside and throughout the night once the temperature is acceptable to them.

Now I want to discuss the various seeds that have been sprouting this past week.  The sunny weather last week definitely helped out my lettuce plants indoors and they started sprouting this weekend.  Both of the Ruby glow hybrid and the iceberg black seeded Simpson are growing.  Check them out below.

It seems that I may have added too many seeds into each pot and I think I will be very busy removing the ones I don't need.  I didn't think that all the seeds would sprout and since they are very small seeds it is difficult to know how many I added.  That is why I always add more than needed because I can always remove some.  In this case I am going to remove quite a bit and it looks that I probably should have added only half or more of what was planted.

When it comes to flowers I am not that worried about having too much because I have found that most of them grow best when they are in a large bunch.  One plant that I especially like that is perfect for this reason is alyssum.  I can grow them in large pots and put a large amount of seeds and they will do just fine for a few month until I place them in the ground.  They flower all season long which is perfect for what I need them for.

Pictured above are alyssum, sunflowers, and dill.  Now that they have sprouted I can remove the dill from under the lights and place some new plants under them.  Right now I am not going to plant anything, but tomorrow I plan on adding tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers under these fluorescent lights.

Getting a Head Start on Melons and More Flowers

It is always a race to get as much seeds planted indoors as you can.  I utilize the sunlight as much as I can and use lights for plants that need it before they can be placed outside for full sunlight.  Right now I am working on getting all the flowers planted right away and then I can start working on other fruits and vegetables that are the main part of the garden.

Each row of containers going horizontally is a different seed.  The first row is calendula, then amaranthus, statice, cornflowers, and in the plastic cups are sunflowers.  They will need more space than any of the other flowers which is why they get large cups.







Queen Anne's Lace was planted as well, but I used peat pots for them.  I find that they can be a bit tricky and this year I want to try using small peat pots that should help in transplanting at least. 

Melons were on my mind today for some reason and when I looked back at when I planted them last year it is only a few days away.  I figured since I was working with peat pots I thought that it would be a good idea to start my watermelon today.  I am using Carolina cross and Georgia rattlesnake this year and see which one has the best success.

Three seeds of Carolina cross and two seeds per pot of Georgia rattlesnake.  I have more sprouting success with the latter than the former.

Getting Lettuce Seeds into Small Peat Pots

This is going to be a short post because all I did was plant some lettuce seeds in some simple peat pots that I had from last season.  Right now the stores do not have gardening supplies yet and so I will be using some peat pots that I had saved from the previous year. 

My lettuce crop last season could have been much better and this year I want to make sure that I get the best harvest that I can grow.  I am mainly working on my Ruby glow hybrid this season because I didn't get as much last year.  As long as I don't have to deal with animals eating it I think I can do pretty good.  As long as I can get them into the ground while the weather is cool and not too warm I should be fine.

I am not putting them under lights either which is something I should probably think about doing, but for now the windowsill should provide the sunlight that they require.

Spinach Sprouting Early and Flowers and Herbs Planted

So far I have only planted my alyssum as a flower to be used in the garden this season.  I like to always get as many flowers as possible to help out the insects outside and give them food that they need.  If I help them then they will help me and my garden in return. 

Dill is a great plant for this reason and I like to plant as many as early as I can.  This is only done once I get my spinach planted along with my alyssum.  I have many more flowers that I would like to plant which I will do either today or sometime during this week.  Time is catching up and very soon I will have to start planting tomatoes, melons, eggplants, and so much more.

Right now I am focusing on flowers in the beginning and later on I will deal with vegetables and fruits I will need to plant early.  Just like my alyssum flowers I use large pots that will hold many seeds and many plants for at least a couple of months at the most until the weather is warm enough to put them in the ground.

Just on a quick note I wanted to let you know that my spinach seeds are actually growing and they are popping through the soil.  They usually take a while to grow because of their hard shell, but this year they are thriving very quickly.

Alyssum Flowers are Perfect for Starting Inside

The very first flowers that are started inside are my alyssum seeds.  I have two annual seeds that I use that produce either white or purple flowers.  I do have a perennial type that is outside right now and should be showing some signs that it will begin to flower soon.  With this warm weather I would not be surprised that it is starting to awaken from its slumber.  These flowers are yellow and differ a little bit from their annual brothers.

Most other years I would plant three containers of alyssum and two of dill just to get a variety of flowers started right away.  I wanted to do something a little different and instead of planting dill along with alyssum I just planted all the alyssum seeds that I had.  I bought two packets and I was able to get five containers of alyssum seeds done.  I have a few more seeds which I can add to some smaller containers later on.  For now I have my alyssum ready and next I will be working on dill.

I keep them on the windowsill instead of placing them underneath fluorescent lights.  Even if there was not much sun they sprout quite quickly and within a week I should begin to see signs of life.