Spring Cometh

Almost, not quite, but....

Starting summer vegetables in winter.

My mom built this frame, long ago. She used to hang a single grow-bulb from it. I found these lights at a reasonable price at a local big box store. I’m hoping they will be useful for many years (if they work well I will buy some spare bulbs, as I don’t know bulbs will be available when these eventually fail.) I was going to plant some tomatoes on Feb 15, but I stopped myself. That is three months at least before they can go in the ground here. Too early.

I built a new set-up, nothing special but functional for the limited space. I can hang four lights from this. I intend on starting vegetables here well into late summer, for a fall harvest. I’ve never had such a set-up, so I am excited and optimistic.

Last late-summer and fall I bought a lot of seeds in stores, anticipating shortages because of supply line issues, more people gardening, for peace of mind. There are plenty of seeds around this spring. I put in a big order with Johnny’s a few weeks ago, who provide a lot of seeds you can’t find elsewhere. A lot of what I purchased are hybrid, so I can’t save seed from most, but the plants should be vigorous. I will mix in seed I bought last year, and use a lot of that for direct seeding. If I take good care I should have to purchase less seed the next 2-3 years.

I planted two trays Feb 26, one tray of six kinds of salad greens which I will plant in a cold frame I am going to build (another post), for an early greens harvest. After a long winter I LOVE that first fresh-picked spring salad.

The second tray was half celery, which take 2-3 weeks to germinate.I started twelve artichoke, which are a perennial that love the central California climate, which need some special attention to fruit properly in Minnesota. I have never tried to grow artichoke but I like to experiment. I started six brussel sprouts.

Feb 27-28 I planted two more trays, one of 250 seeds of Patterson yellow onions, and 250 of a red onion.

Salad greens and the brussels popped up in three days. Not all of the six salad greens germinated well but this is good reference for future planting.

Once the onions germinate I will move them to a south facing set of windows upstairs, until I can bring them outside. Around March 15 I will start tomatoes, peppers, cabbage. April 01, more cabbage, kohl rabi, assorted brassica. April 15, summer melons, cukes, whatever else I have room for, to give a few things like beets an early start, which I could otherwise set as seed in the ground. May 01 give or take I can start planting seeds outside. Last frost this far north can be anytime in May. May 15 is about as early as I can plant summer starts like tomatoes. Sometime early April I will build a temporary outdoor greenhouse, to finish the brassica’s and other summer veges, to make room under the lights.

There is still a lot of snow outside, and will be for awhile. This always makes late winter more enjoyable to me.

Gavin Mounsey found his way somehow to this substack. In case you need to be convinced to start or support a garden, here are 23 reasons why, a good synopsis I thought. Even samurai would garden, for the humility, for the vigor, for the spiritual connection to the earth, for the art of it.

Brussels. Not sure why they are leaning like that. Might be, lights are too close together, or too close to the plant? They are leaning toward the south, though there is only one small basement window twenty feet away. If they continue to lean I am going to flip them facing north daily.

Artichoke.

Here here for an early spring.