View Full Version : Best tips for starting the garden early?
I am gathering peoples' best tips for extending their normal growing season - starting earlier and finishing later. Care to share?
The ones I use:
--I buy seeds for plants that I know will grow well in our short season, and grow from seed as much as I can (I can't remember the last time I bought a packet of seeds from the Home Despot, for example)
--I start everything inside that I can, especially tomatoes, which I like to grow up to sizeable transplants before they go out in May
--I have lights, but would like some more!
--When I put out my seedlings early, I mulch them, put hot caps over them, then put a floating row cover over the whole thing for extra protection.
--I use thermal mass (usually jugs filled with water) to add warmth to beds
What are your tricks, oh-gardeners-who-can't-wait? Or who can't stand to put the garden to bed sometimes?
:)
Southern Exposure has a number of plants that do well down to to 6F degrees.
http://www.southernexposure.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=even%27+star
This Asian greens mix has survived some hours at 12F and several days in the 20sF.
http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/0200/Lettuce-Mesclun-Asian-Salad-Greens-Seed/srch:Lettuce%20Mesclun%20Asian%20Salad%20Greens%20 Seed
All of the Sassy Salad Mix did well down to 25F and much of it did ok in the 12/20 mentioned above
http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/7304/Lettuce-Mesclun-Sassy-Salad-Seed/srch:sassy%20salad
Quite a few varieties of the bok choy are still ok in the 12/20. On some the outside stems of some plants froze but the next layer in is ok.
Mache usually gets off to a fast start.
Cooks Garden has lettuces and salad mix for each season
http://www.cooksgarden.com/vegetables/lettuce/
http://www.cooksgarden.com/vegetables/mesclun/
I and some of the other gardeners have a lettuce mix that survived the 12/20 though it's sitting at about 2" and is not growing at the moment. It was a gift and I don't speak the languages of the gardeners that gave it to me, so don't know the variety. Hope to get a translator and find out. Will try to save seed from it too.
Usually I can get Kale, Collards, and Mustard through the winter even under 5 feet of snow. It is very flat when the snow melts :-) . In better years I can get lots of greens and asian greens through the winter by growing them to full size before frost and then just using the garden as a living refrigerator through the winter. In best years I can do the same with root crops. Some varieties of these tend to be more hardy than others.
Amaranth, what zone are you in?
Technically we are Zone 7a but occasionally years ranging anywhere from 6a to 8b. Usually not more than a couple of inches of snow on the ground at a time. The year with 5+ feet that just kept piling up and not melting was very unusual.
Well you already read about my low tunnels on another thread. I try to get seed flats outside as early as possible because the light quality is just so much better and stronger than with fluorescent lights. I do have an unheated greenhouse they go in, but I bring the flats in at night until late April. I also use those low tunnels as a place to hold the flats during the day.
Last year I started microgreens in a southern window in my living room, and was putting them in sandwiches from mid February on.
I'm in the Valley of Virginia -- not to far from Polyface Farm, as a matter of fact. I'm about to get my peas (we grow only snow peas) in the ground as soon as we get a week of dry weather. I'm gonna try putting my onion seed in the ground at the same time as an experiment.
I threw some seeds under low tunnels yesterday, about 3 months earlier than experts in my area would recommend. The soil in the low tunnels is not frozen (unlike the surrounding soil), I put a thermometer in today and at about 3" of depth, the temperature is 45 degrees. So I started some tatsoi and a lettuce mix. I expect there to be uneven germination at this time of year, and I'm prepared for it to be a failure, so no biggie. I understand it will also grow slow, due to both cold as well as reduced day length than if I planted them in May. But I'm waiting for spring anyways, so why not?
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