Getting Most of My Flowers Outside for Fresh Air

Yesterday the weather was very good and it was in the low 70's for most of the day and it was a good chance to place many of my plants outside.  For now I am just going to be putting flowers outdoors to get used to the weather.  I will be placing all my others outside maybe in a week or at the end of this coming week.

I want to get my flowers used to the weather as soon as possible in order to place them in the ground very soon.  This is what I do every season and it has definitely worked to my advantage.  Placing them outside not just helps the plants, but it also helps in possibly attracting good insects during the daytime and laying eggs on plant leaves.

I am getting blooming buds on many of my alyssum plants and these are always the first to boom.  Once they start flowering then I know it is almost time to get them into the ground, but for now I will just be placing them outside each day and bring them inside for the night.

Most of the other flowers will be flowering once I place them in the garden, but right now they are just growing as best as possible with the good weather that we are having.  Some perennial flowers are in the garden right now such as my feverfew, perennial alyssum, and even some cilantro has come back from last season.  These are usually annuals but I guess the seeds were preserved and they started growing in the garden once the weather was good enough.

I also have lettuce outside during the entire day and night.  They have been outside for the longest and I am going to be putting them in the garden hopefully sometime this week.  They look ready for the garden and I think once I get them in the ground they should start growing much better.

All my other plants such as eggplants, melons, peppers, and most of the fruits and vegetables will not be placed outside at the moment.  I will be waiting for higher temperatures outside.  Since they will not be planted any time soon I can keep them inside for now.

Getting Some of My Onion Bulbs Planted in Totes

I like using totes for my onions and I also do use the ground for them as well since it worked out last season I wanted to do it again to make sure it works.  I have not placed them in the ground yet and I hope to finish that tomorrow with weather permitting. 

I have already placed them in totes this past weekend and since it usually doesn't take that long I took just one hour to get that completed.  It will take a little bit longer to plant them in the garden which is why I was waiting for a good day to do so.

I also needed to get my squash plants ready indoors as well.  This is around the time when I get them started now that most of my plants have filled the windowsill.  I can place both zucchini and pumpkin seeds under flourescent lights for a quick sprouting.  I do still have some tomatoes that are under lights, but for the most part many of them are getting light from the sun.

I will soon be placing my flowers outside along with lettuce that is being hardened off right now.  They have been outside the past week and I want them to get ready for the weather outside before transplanting them.  I probably will be planting lettuce by the end of the month if possible.

I am also growing some basil and parsley this season for something extra.  I don't usually grow herbs except for dill and cilantro, but this season I wanted to add some to the garden because when I grew parsley last season as a test they were able to last quite awhile and I collected quite a bit of it over the season.  Since parsley worked in 2015 this year I am adding basil to the list.

My Spinach Plants are Ready for Garden Transplanting

I was definitely a little bit late this year in placing my spinach plants into the garden and it was mainly due to the strange weather we had.  It was beginning to get warm with signs of spring in the air and then a sharp cold blast along with rain came through and messed up my schedule.

I had originally planned on putting my plants in the ground this past weekend and would have been perfect timing.  I knew I had to get them in the ground as quick as possible because they were starting to get a little bit pot bound.  A few of them have actually started bolting and are now useless plants that will no longer grow any leaves.

Thankfully that was only a couple of plants at the most and hopefully I placed them in the garden before they all start to bolt.  Today it is supposed to rain so that might help the roots to start spreading in all directions.  Once we get some good days of full sun then the leaves should start growing quite well and I can then harvest them for as long as possible.

Here is one of the plants that actually started bolting this year.

I still transplanted it into the ground regardless because I had already created a hole for it and I did not want it to go to waste.  Once these plants bolt that is when you know the cold plant season is over.  Hopefully I will get some good harvests from my other plants that are still in good shape.