Speaking of Spring, around here in New England, it's time to start planting seeds. I started a few different varieties indoors back in March, but there are many that can be sown directly outdoors depending on the weather conditions. When you can, it's best to purchase a seed starting kit; otherwise, there are lots of creative ways to start seeds with whatever you can find in the house.
- Tomatoes (Amish Paste and one unknown variety from seeds I saved from last year)
- Beans (Cranberry and White Northern)
- Waltham Butternut Winter Squash
- Sunflowers (Goldy Double and Orange Sun)
- Lettuce (Pirat Butterhead)
I do have watermelon radish, which I plan on sowing outside in the next couple of weeks as long as the temperatures are warm enough, and heirloom beet seeds that will have to wait until late summer (it's too late to plant them now).
For the small yogurt cups, I poked drainage holes in them and placed them in a tray lined with a bed of small rocks, whereas for the large yogurt containers I just placed a layer of small rocks in the bottom of the container for drainage and then added the soil on top. To create a "greenhouse" environment for the seeds, I covered the small yogurt cups with the top half of a couple of clear plastic soda bottles, bottoms cut off, and covered the large yogurt containers with plastic wrap.
With the juice, milk and cream cartons, I placed a layer of small rocks in the bottom, then filled the containers with soil, and used either clear plastic soda bottles (for the cream cartons) or plastic wrap (for the juice and milk cartons) to create mini greenhouses.
The tomatoes and butternut squash are doing exceptionally well, as are the cranberry and white northern beans that I sprouted from my supply of dried beans I keep in the pantry closet. As the weather is staying a bit more consistent here in New England, I should be able to transplant them outside within the next couple of weeks.
Due to the unusually warm, summer-like weather we've been having both in March and April, I feel like I'm a bit behind in my gardening schedule; however, that is not the case, thankfully.
In the next blog post, I will share some tips on vertical gardening (my newest obsession!) and include updates of what's growing in the garden (garlic!). Stay tuned!
May you have great success during this wonderful growing season! :-)
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Happy digging!