Potatoes are Placed into the Garden Later than Recommended

Due to weather conditions I have been planting much of my garden later than I would like to.  As they say April showers bring May flowers.  This happens to be true most years, but this season it has been abnormally rainy and windy for the most part.  I normally wouldn’t mind, but unfortunately it is preventing me from planting potatoes and other plants into the garden.

Luckily today was actually quite nice, but definitely windy.  I can deal with the wind and since the sun was out for a short time I decided that it was time to get my seed potatoes into the ground.  I had cut them a couple of days ago and let them sit in the windowsill in order to cure them before placing them in rows outside. 

 

 Rather than digging holes which would have taken much longer to complete I decided that it would be best to start with a thirty foot row.  I had to dig a little bit deeper because they require at least three inches of soil to cover these seeds.  Once I did that I planted them into each row and took up about twenty feet of row instead of the usual thirty or more.

 

  This means that there was extra room that I need to fill.  Since I had no more potatoes to plant I thought it would be best to put some cool weather seeds there.  I wasn’t sure what to put in this spot, but I eventually decided on cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, celery, and lettuce.  I could have placed some flowers there, but there was enough space for some seeds to be planted.

All my recently planted seeds have started to pop up.  I didn’t think they would be sprouting by now, but believe or not they are showing themselves through the soil.  I would guess that it was all the rain we have been receiving for the past couple of weeks with more to come

How Late is Too Late to Plant Peas and Radishes Outside?

Timing is everything when it comes to gardening because there is a time when it is too late to start planting certain seeds.  In this case it is between radishes and snow peas.  I always like to get them into the soil during the month of April and no later.  Although I just planted them in the soil today which is still within the month of April, I would have rather planted them a couple of weeks ago if the weather cooperated.  Luckily this week was good enough to cultivate the soil and I had to plant them today in the cloudy rainy weather.

Now that they are in the soil they can take advantage of the cool weather and rainy conditions which they seem to like and thrive in just like my onions.  I will soon start planting my lettuce, spinach, cabbage, and other plants into the garden soon once they get a little bit bigger.  These I planted indoors and have been in containers outside for the past month or so.

I plan on getting my potatoes into the ground as well.  I am thinking about giving them an entire thirty foot row in the garden.  I think one thirty foot row is plenty of room to get many plants into the ground once I cut off the eyes and dry them a little bit. 

Each eye is potentially a plant that is waiting to be planted into the ground.  You can just plant the whole potato in the ground, but if you cut the eyes you can get many more plants and hopefully a much larger harvest.

My containers that I have planted indoors that are full of edible plant seeds and flower seeds are starting to sprout and break through the soil.  Some seeds that were planted indoors include pumpkins, zucchini, watermelon, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, pickles, cantaloupe, honeydew, and many more.

I have also planted flowers that include Queen Anne’s lace, statice, coriander/cilantro, cosmos, calendula, marigolds, corn flowers, and many more.

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.