The Weather is Beginning to Heat Up

Now that spring weather is starting to appear and trees are beggining to show signs of budding along with grass starting to grow it is time to work in the garden.  My plants are still in containers from starting them inside and they will be placed outside to get used to the weather.  This is just something that the plants need to go through in order to be placed in the garden without getting a shock to their system.

Now that my plants are outside and it is warm enough to work with the soil and is beginning to dry I thought yesterday was a perfect time to work on my blueberries.  I didn't do much except for weeding them and removing many leaves that had collect during the fall months.  It was mostly maple leaves and trees around the area that happen to get collected here.

As you can see from the picture below of all the fall debris that had collect along with some grass that was beginning to grow as well.  I got rid of all of it in order to give them a good head start to the summer season.

Along with warmer weather comes transplanting of some plants mainly my spinach which has been growing quite well.  It is still too early to till the entire garden as well as placing any other plants in the soil so I will just focus on spinach for the time being.  Later on I will be working on my other plants.

They are beginning to grow their second set of leaves and the roots have almost reached the bottom and this is how you know when it is time to place them in the soil.

More Cucumbers Were Needed as Well as Flowers

I wanted to plant some more cucumbers today because I did not plant enough the first time.  I placed plenty of seeds in them and they are now beginning to sprout.  With warmer weather coming pretty soon it is important to get all my vegetables and fruits growing as soon as possible.

I have mostly all the plants I need growing at the moment and some of them I will not plant until I till the garden because they get sown directly into the ground.  Since I had an extra light I made sure that I utilized it while it is not being used.  Now my cucumbers and flowers such as alyssum, dill, and cilantro are growing underneath it.

Flowers planted in large green containers.

 Cucumbers planted in plastic cups.

Just Another Day for Planting Onions

The time has come to start planting onions outside now that the weather is starting to warm up enough to plant these bulbs.  It has been warming up above freezing for the past week allowing me to work with the soil stored inside the totes that I use.  The first week of April is perfect for growing these bulbs.

One added thing that I am doing this year with onions is trying to plant them in the garden as well as in the totes that I used for the past ten years or more.  This was something I did many years ago, but didn't do quite as well as the totes.  I am trying it this year with all the extra onion bulbs that I had left over.  A pound and a half of onion bulbs can get you quite a bit of bulbs.

This means that I have to take care of two different areas of onions this season instead of worrying about the totes.  I will have to double my efforts such as more mulch, fertilizer, and watering.  This shouldn't be bad as long as I do what I did last season.

Peppers, tomatoes, and more plants are sprouting inside.  While it is warm for onion bulbs it is not warm for many of my other plants that I started inside.  Tomatoes and peppers have just sprouted last week and are looking quite good with minimal amount of sunlight.

Tomato

Pepper

At the same time I am beginning to harden off my spinach plants as early as possible in order to get them accustomed to the temperatures and winds that they will face once I plant them into the ground.

Finally My Spinach Seeds and More are Sprouting

I have been waiting about a month to see my spinach seeds to begin to sprout and I checked yesterday and found that some of them were beginning to grow.  It is always exciting to finally to see spinach seeds sprout instead of not doing anything.  I have had that happen before and it is not a good feeling.

Now that they are starting to sprout the gardening season will pick up real quick within a month or so.  Once they reach a certain size I will then bring them outside for awhile and then plant them into the ground.  Lettuce is another cool weather crop that I planted a couple of weeks ago and is also sprouting.  Check them out below.

Basically once I see plants sprouting all the work that I have put into it has not been a waste of time.  This is one of the reasons why planting seeds indoors is very important. 

Most of my beneficial flowers that I grow are growing as well.  The most important ones I would consider crucial include alyssum, dill, and sunflowers.

Dill

Alyssum is starting to look good and is beginning to grow rather quickly.

Here are the sunflowers that have sprouted the past couple of weeks or so.

The last thing I want to mention is the planting of cucumbers and cantaloupe.  Two plants that need a head start especially cantaloupe because they are similar to watermelons and are considered melons.

Three More Seeds Planted This Week

More plants were added this week and  I thought starting them a week or two earlier than last season would be a great way to increase harvest yields.  I don't normally plant tomatoes this early and they have done great when planted later, but this season I wanted to get them a much needed head start.

Instead of planting just a few of each cherry, steakhouse, and super sauce tomato I decided to grow three cherry, four steakhouse, and all twenty five seeds of super sauce.  Making sauce is what I will be focusing on this year and getting many Roma tomatoes will be my goal.  A head start for these plants makes perfect sense.

I planted one super sauce seed per pot as seen below.

I planted two cherry tomato seeds per pot.

I also had some more room underneath the fluorescent light that I am using and decided to plant three eggplants in plastic pots and six peppers in medium sized peat pots.  I still have more planting to do and once my spinach starts sprouting I will then use that light for more flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetable plantings.