Adding One More Tote for My Spring Season Onions

This year was a good idea to add another tote for my onions this season because I decided to use more totes for planting red onions.  They were a great addition to the garden last year and I thought it would be good use more totes to plant them.  That is why I only added one for the moment making the total of totes 10.  I will now use four for my red onions and six for my yellow onions.

I am hoping that these onions will be just as good as the ones I picked last season and will last just as long in storage.  The last red onion was used less than a month ago which means that these onions can last quite awhile if stored properly.  Right now I will be using non garden onions for at least a few months or until I pick a new batch of them.
 

Now that I have planted onions I think it is time to get my peas and radishes into the ground.  I probably should have planted them sooner since it might rain tomorrow which will give them one less day of growing.  I would like to till the section where they are going to be planted, but with the rain tomorrow will make the ground soggy and will not be advisable to till when this happens.  I will just have to plant them without tilling.

More plants are going to be planted inside as well because I have many flowers that need to get into pots not to mention all my other edible foods.  I have not planted watermelon which I love to get a head start and really needs one.  My eggplants also take awhile to grow along with peppers, cucumbers, pickles, cantaloupe, honeydew, and much more.

At the moment my spring plants are doing quite well and with this rain occurring tomorrow possibly it will definitely help them out.  I have been leaving them outside for the past couple of days even though it is sill cool.  They are taking to the weather quite well and they will probably stay outside from now until the warm weather makes them go to seed.

Time to Get Those Four Types of Tomato Seeds into Containers for Indoor Planting

That is right I have four different types of tomatoes that I am going to be planting this season instead of the usual three that I grow every year.  I thought it would be good to try another type of tomato instead of the same every season.  I happen to see a couple of them in the store that I thought would be good for the garden.  I picked up big boy tomato seeds and a super beefsteak.

 

I would have liked to plant my tomatoes indoors a little bit sooner than this past weekend, but I think they should do fine as long as I place them under fluorescent lights to give them a good head start.  There is no room on the windowsill which makes this a necessity to put them under lights for the time being until they sprout.

 I will be continuing to plant cherry and Roma tomatoes which happen to have real benefits.  Roma tomatoes can be made into sauce or other delicious foods and cherry tomatoes are just perfect placed into a salad.  If I get a large harvest of cherry tomatoes like I did last year I can make them into a salsa before they turn moldy. 

Right now my spring crops have begun to sprout this past week.  All the spinach seeds that were planted are now through the soil along with other crops such as lettuce, broccoli, and some celery.  I am hoping by next week everything should be up through the soil or at least just poking through the soil. 

I plan on planting some more seeds very soon which could include melons, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins and many more.  I also still have many flowers that need to be planted which will come very soon as well. 

I might have to get another fluorescent light because my tomatoes are using the two that I use every season for everything.  Although I might not have to once I get my spring crop outside during the daytime I can then have more room on the windowsill.

What is New this Year for My Spring Crop?

This years spring crop is revolving mostly around lettuce.  I actually have seven different variety of lettuce seeds that I bought his year that I decided on growing.  I didn’t think I bought this many, but this should make my garden much more diverse with different types of lettuce and other seeds.

I am growing at least one from each type of lettuce which includes butterhead, looseleaf, iceberg, and of course romaine.  I have three different types of romaine which makes up the bulk of my lettuce seeds this season.  Two looseleafs and one of iceberg and butterhead make up the other half of my seeds.

It wouldn’t be a good spring crop if I didn’t add spinach to the list as well.  I normally start spinach much sooner, but I decided on planting these seeds at the same time as my other spring seeds that I have placed on the windowsill. 

This time I am using different types of containers for these seeds.  These particular plants have a deep tap root and need plenty of vertical room in order to grow correctly and prevent them from going to seed too soon.  I have planted them in smaller containers before and they would always go to seed very quickly which makes them useless for harvesting.

This time I avoided small containers and used longer vertical ones that should provide enough room for the main root to grow without becoming pot bound.  I planted six seeds of my spinach and all the others I have only planted three since there are many seeds I am using for a spring crop.

The last of my spring crop include brussel sprouts, cabbage, celery, and broccoli.  My broccoli I will be picking through the entire season hopefully since it is a hybrid that can withstand the hot sunny days during the summer months.  As for the other three they are pretty much regular types of seeds and I am giving them a head start by planting them indoors first.

What I Plan on Doing for the 2019 Gardening Season

This year I am hoping to be growing many new variety of plants and adding some brand new plants into the garden.  I am looking to have a much larger spring crop than usual which could include seeds such as cabbage, broccoli, and seven different types of lettuce, peas, radishes, and many more for this year’s springtime.

Along with new seeds and varieties I am also looking to grow some new plants this season too.  I was thinking about trying potatoes again but getting them from a local store instead of ordering them from a catalog.  I thought I would try something different in order to get a different outcome this season.

I am looking at possibly adding raspberries and maybe grapes into the garden.  I will most likely plant raspberries, but for grapes I am still up in the air about them.  Although they are a little bit more work it would definitely be worth all the trouble in the end.

I even thought about growing a fruit tree such as an apple or a peach tree.  There was one particular peach tree that actually grows five different types of peaches which can be picked at different times throughout the year.  The theory behind this is that you can pick them all year long instead of one large harvest and then done for the year.  I am still thinking about this as well.

In terms of seeds I have several varieties of lettuce that I plan on growing which includes all four types romaine, iceberg, butterhead, and looseleaf.  With seven different types of seeds I should be able to get a decent crop as long as the weather isn’t too bad.  I will most likely start these plants indoors before putting them outside this year.

Last year I just planted them directly into the soil and I did get some lettuce for picking, but they didn’t do as well as a transplant does.  I plan on planting much more of my seeds indoors instead of directly sowing them into the soil.  This is the best way to get a good start to the growing season in my opinion.  Let’s have a good gardening season for 2019.

Some of The Last Plants That Will be Growing Until the First Ground Freeze

Right now most of the garden plants are done with the exception of cool weather plants and a couple of eggplants.  I have picked an eggplant from each of my plants this season, but I am getting a second crop from a couple of my plants.  Since this week a frost may occur I might have to pick them prematurely before the cold ends the summer season for good this year.

I am also growing a cool weather crop for the fall including some broccoli, kale, brussel sprouts, and a few plants of celery.  I even have rhubarb which I started this season which will hopefully last through the winter once I place some straw over it for protection from the freezing cold.

The only plants that I added into the garden this fall was my kale.  Although kale can be grown in the spring I have found that growing them in the fall is much easier and there is much more room to grow a couple of rows of this delicious plant.  Since they are easy to freeze and store it makes them the perfect leaf for any season.
 

All the other plants were planted in the springtime and have endured the hot temperatures that came during this summer.  Since I plant a sun king hybrid of broccoli they are able to withstand the heat and still produce good sized heads and side shoots.  Right now I am working on two broccoli plants and I have been harvesting broccoli from them since sometime in late July or August.  They are still good and both plants are continuing to supply me with more broccoli each week.

Brussel sprouts and celery I have not harvested yet even though they were planted all the way back in the springtime.  I will have to plant them a little bit earlier and probably start both of them inside in small pots or possibly peat pots. 

The good news is that the heat did not damage them and I still might be able to pick them once they are ready for harvesting.  My celery might be ready in a couple of weeks and my brussel sprouts might soon be ready for picking.  At least my brussel sprout plant is producing sprouts on the stem and in-between the leaves.  I can’t wait to start harvesting all these fall crop plants