An exciting day at Cross Road Gardens. It really felt like spring, for the first time, I think. A burst of gardening energy, although I only really worked for a few hours.
Spring day
Category: seed starting
Broccoli sprouts
I feel so happy to see these brave little broccoli sprouts! It’s been cold and windy for days now, but the sprouts are getting some light and warmth in the hoophouse on sunny days.
Starts
I moved my seed starting schedule two weeks forward. I think I started too early last year.
So far, so good. My alliums have sprouted and some kale. Still waiting on celery leaf and indigo.
Center from top: kale and cutting celery, cabbage and Brussels sprouts, alliums.
Right: a pot of indigo.
Today I planted brassica seeds: broccoli blend, Speedia Brussels sprouts, and Mammoth red cabbage. All Fedco.
First seeds of 2021
We bought a bag of Sunshine growing mix this year for seed starting. It has coir, which I’ve seen some complaints about. But it’s organic, so we’ll see how it does.
My first flat of soil blocks made and planted. This seedling mix contains mostly Sunshine mix, but I added our own compost, some sand, a little azomite, and a little greensand. The flat contains borettana cipollini onions, leeks, and two kind of shallots.
Final days of indoor seedlings
Yesterday I dismantled the indoor seedling operation and cleaned the area. Reclaimed a lot of space in the living room!
Disposition of remaining seedlings:
- Four Marketmore cucumber seedlings to plant, joining four already planted last week
- Four soil blocks of celeriac
- Twelve soil blocks of Afina cutting celery (indistinguishable from celeriac)
- 24 tomato plants of unidentified variety. No room for these, so we are giving them away.
- Five tomatillos that will go into the hoophouse
- Four ground cherries to be planted in various places
- Twelve pepper seedlings destined for the hoophouse
- Four summer squash: two costata romanesco zucchini, one black zucchini, one patty pan (a very late germinator). I only want to plant three.
- 18 winter squash destined for the community garden or maybe a few in the main garden
I’ve got a lot of planting ahead of me this week with these and direct seeding.
Snowareness
A little April snow
Under the tightening grip of the pandemic, it stays peaceful here. Today a little light snow. Robust tomato sprouts will soon need transplanting.
It begins! 2020
Twelve weeks (estimated) until last frost date for my zone (5b). I’m using May 8 as that date.
So we started seeds today. I’m trying to get more organized with my garden planning. I used a planting schedule from Johnny’s Seeds to plan out the indoor seed starting schedule week by week. First up, alliums:
- Conservor shallots
- Borrettana Cippollini onions
- Bleu de Solaize leeks
We used our soil blocking tool and a potting mix composed with the following recipe:
- 5 parts ProMix Growing Medium
- 3 parts compost (Vee, left over from last year)
- 1/2 part sand
- 1/4 part azomite
- 5 parts water
I sprinkled the seeds over the top of the blocks, then sprinkled more ProMix over the top and misted. The flat is on the kitchen floor for now, where the radiant floor heat can keep them warm.
Next week, I’ll start some celeriac and leaf celery. Maybe parsley. And I need to fill out my planting schedule with set-out dates and direct-seed dates.