The first being that my seeds have sprouted and grown up into awesome little baby plants.
And when those little baby plants got their leaves, I put them into the larger pots I've been making from a collection of plastic drink cups. And when they got even bigger, I planted them outside!
So far I have planted, as seedlings:
- Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage
- Buttercrunch and Black-seeded Simpson lettuce
- Borage
- Bloomsdale longstanding spinach
- Red Russian kale
- Rainbow chard
as seed:
- Dill
- Cilantro
- 2 types of carrots, gotta check on those
- Hollow crown parsnips
- strawberry spinach
- peas
- more spinach
and as starts:
- Quinault strawberries
- Jersey Green Giant asparagus
- Mt. Hood, Sterling, and Willamette hops
Not to mention the raspberries, whose leaves are unfurling, the garlic that I started last fall and is well on its way, the mint, sage, rosemary, thyme, and chives which are starting to sprout back, the rye which survived the winter, and the couple of radicchio roots I came across when I was digging spots for strawberries.
Oh, and tomatoes:
Courtesy of Rutgers Gardens, and there's another sale coming up in 2 weekends. Plus all the other seeds that are still in my bathtub.
What I've Learned (most important part)
1. Start EARLY. With new, cold-weather spring crops, you can start at the end of January. I began my first round of seeds indoors at the end of February, which gave me enough time, but a lot of my seedlings weren't as large or vigorous as I would have liked, or as an extra month would have allowed, when planted outside. The problem here is that to do this, space is necessary, so I need to...
2. Work on space provisions, lighting, and fertilization of seedlings. I'll tell you what I come up with.
3. 2 FULL WEEKS to harden off. Lest your plants get sunburned, which mine did. When they go into the outdoors, for the first day leave them in the shade, then the next day in sun for an hour only. Every day, for 2 weeks, add an hour a day, until you can eventually leave them outside overnight, and in the sun without them crisping up.
