The great thing about a garden is if you get super involved with it, it can become a three- if not a four-season project. You can grow food for your family almost the entire year. Look up the growing season for your area (I use garden.org/app/calendar) and think about trying to extend it.
Be aware, though, that as we slide further into the grand solar minimum, the growing seasons for many areas will be getting shorter with frost lingering later into the spring and beginning earlier in the autumn. This has already begun to happen, by the way. The last several springs in the northern Midwest have been a disaster for planting corn and other crops because the weather was simply too cold and wet. At the other end of the season, many farmers weren’t able to get their crops in before the snow began, especially sugar beets and other crops in Canada. Plan for cooler temperatures, not warmer.
Start Your Seeds. Now.
On Thursday at our homestead, we started the seeds for plants that will be transplanted into the garden. It’s still too cold for the seeds that will be direct sown, but the transplants will be kept indoors for several weeks. Since I’m starting over, I had to start some perennial herbs as well as the annual vegetables.
You want to give your plants as much of a head start as possible to get them a big as possible before the insect pests hatch. I try always to start all my seeds as soon as the growing season allows, whether I am starting transplants or direct sowing into the beds.
How to Start
I use seed starting flats with varying number of cells, depending on the size of the seedling: larger cells for plants like tomatoes, smaller ones for cabbage and broccoli, even smaller for onions and leeks. These flats can be purchased at many garden centers and through catalogs. The cells are filled with a soil-less seed starting mix, which is sterile. If at all possible, do not use soil to start the seeds since the chance of root rot or other difficulties is greater. The flats go on a grow table under fluorescent lights. I got the table for free when a school no longer wanted it. You can use regular fluorescent lights rather than the more expensive grow lights. Just purchase a combination of warm and cool fluorescent bulbs to approximate a grow light.
What to start
First, we planted seeds for the vegetables that will be transplanted out around the third week of April. In my area, that means we could still see frost, but brassicas, like broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and cabbage, can stand a frost. German thyme went into the same flat, as well as valerian and anise hyssop. The last two are medicinal herbs.
In another flat went the seeds for the plants that will be transplanted out around the third week of May, tomatoes and an early Jalapeno, that can’t take a frost. We like Burbank and Brandywine for slicing tomatoes, San Marenzo for sauce, and Principe for sun-dried tomatoes (and to use as a cherry-type).
Leeks (giant Musselburgh) and celery went into a third flat. We planted a boatload of leeks because to save seed because, for genetic strength, seeds need to be saved from 20 to 50 plants. Yup. And because they are biennials, we need to get them through the winter. We’ll see!
Final Thoughts
There’s nothing wrong with buying bedding plants from a local garden center or big-box store. What’s great about starting your own, though, is that you get to pick the exact varieties you want, which you may or may not be able to purchase locally. And if you save your own seed, the seeds will begin to develop genetic strength to survive in your area.
