If this is your first year starting plants from seed, start small, Gardeners.com says. Easy-to-start vegetables include herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli and leafy greens such as spinach, kale and lettuce; easy flowering plants include cosmos, zinnias, marigolds and sunflowers. Fussier seeds require a temperature change to trigger the end of dormancy and germinate; the good news is that many of these are perennials that will return year after year in your garden. Whatever you choose, be sure that soil and air temperatures don’t ruin your carefully cultivated seedlings; schedule transplant according to the final frost date in your area. #StartingSeeds
Tag: growing vegetables
Give Seedlings Plenty of Light
As you start to care for your homegrown seedlings, be sure to give them plenty of light — 12 to 16 hours per day. Mist the plants once or twice daily to keep them moist, and try a greenhouse-style covered tray to maintain light dampness. “If your seeds dry out, they won’t germinate, but if they stay too wet, they could rot,” says Swanson Nursery. When your seeds sprout, thin them to concentrate growing energy on the strongest. Once they have several leaves and a week or two before the transplant, “harden” your seedlings by giving them a few hours of outdoor time in a shady or protected spot every day. #StartingSeeds
Start Your Summer Seeds Indoors
Starting seeds indoors can save money over buying plants, and the time to start is now! Depending on your plant hardiness zone, you can determine when you’ll need to plant seedlings outdoors and work backward from that date. Many plants need about six weeks to grow from seed to outdoor starter, so if you start this week, plants should be ready by May 1. Simply sow your seeds in soil or seed starter in a tray or small container, planting them only as deep as the seed is large. You can replant harder seedlings such as broccoli and onions as soon as two weeks before your area’s final frost. #StartingSeeds
Enjoying the Bounty of a Summer Garden
For many people, there’s nothing like growing your own food. It’s healthy, cost-effective, #sustainable and above all, delicious! And if you followed some of The Organizing Blog’s previous #gardening tips, you’re probably drowning in fresh summer produce right now.
What to do with all of those garden-fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, melons, peaches and other delicacies is the question. If you’re anything like us, you planted with abandon eight to 10 weeks ago, and now must do whatever you can to make the most of that fresh produce.
One way is to share some of that bounty with friends, family and neighbors who don’t have the same amount or variety of produce. Whether they have the space or the ambition to grow their own fresh food or not, nobody is going to turn their nose up at a ripe heirloom tomato.
Another way to take advantage of summer’s bounty is to try a new recipe (or several). Base your meal plan on whatever produce you have in abundance, and you may wind up discovering a dish that you can revisit again even in the off-season.
Speaking of the off-season, there are plenty of ways to keep and store some of that produce for cloudier and colder days. Too many tomatoes? Make and freeze some marinara for a lasagna. Got lots of corn? Cut it off the cob and freeze the kernels in bagged portions for anytime use.
Many summer fruits and vegetables can be processed, portioned and frozen quickly for later use including peaches, plums, watermelon and peppers. Got bumper crop of basil? Make pesto ice cubes and pull one out any time you need to flavor a pasta or meat dish.
Freezing summer produce can make it last up to six months, but if you really want to put things up like the pioneers, try your hand at home canning. It’s simpler than it sounds, and you can make tons of sauces, pickles and jams that you can tap into for months — or give as gifts.
Even if you didn’t grow your own fruits and vegetables this year, don’t let summer’s bounty go to waste. Visit a local farmers market to get some of the freshest, healthiest foods you’ll taste all year. (And get enough to share!)
Gardening Season Begins Now
In places with four relatively distinct seasons, most people treat gardening as a warm-weather pastime that creates beauty around the home and abundance on the table. And with Mother’s Day in the rearview mirror, now’s the time to start if you haven’t already.
Avid gardeners have been planning for months, cultivating seeds indoors, prepping their tools and so on. But those who are late to the game can still get plants into the ground and experience satisfaction of growing their own flowers and vegetables.
The first step is to know your location’s plant hardiness zone at USDA’s site. This will help you determine the optimal times to plant, as well as inform any decisions on about which trees, flowers and crops grow best in your area.
Pretty much everything is fair game for planting at this point in the season, though gardeners in the northernmost reaches of the country — Zones 3 and 4 — may need to wait until the end of the month to allow the soil to warm sufficiently and protect against a final frost.
Early-season crops such as radishes, spinach, onions, lettuce, cabbage, beets, peas and carrots can go in immediately. Depending on location, seedling tomatoes, squash, eggplant, peppers, sweet corn, cucumbers, potatoes, and herbs can be transplanted.
Continue planting warm-weather crops such as flowers and vegetables into June. Once seedlings are established, mulch to keep weeds at bay. Have stakes, cages or trellises ready for plants that climb or weigh themselves down with fruit, like tomatoes.
From here on out, maintenance is the name of the game. Keep your plants watered and fed with compost; weed if necessary. Deadhead annual flowers to keep them blooming. When vegetables mature, harvest in the early morning or evening when plants are least stressed.
Any foods you grow yourself will be healthier and more flavorful than what you buy in the store; they may even spur you to try a new recipe. And those flowers and shrubs will beautify your place and enhance your mood. Enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor!