new! JosieGladysGardens is Expanding into Pages!

New! JosieGladysGardens is Expanding into Pages! Okay, so it's just one page besides the home page so far. :) Check out the PAGES link below. This is where photos of the garden's harvest are served up. Coming (eventually) will be a recipes page. Of course, you can also get recipes at www.SandraReaves.com under Food Preservation.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Start Seeds Now!

Time to start seeds for 2 types of vegetables:  ones that love cool weather like the cole family and ones that love hot weather like the solanaceae family. 

Cole crops need to be started indoors now so they will be big enough to grow to maturity before the weather gets too hot for them.  Included in this group are cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, and kohlrabi.  Other cool weather veggies you can start indoors include onions, leeks, parsnips, and carrots.  For all of these, sow the seeds closely and divide the plants when it's time to set them out in the garden.

Solanaceae plants are tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.  They need the really warm weather of summer for the fruit to ripen and the plants need a long time to get mature enough to produce fruit.  Counting the days to harvest for these plants starts from the time you transplant them into the garden, rather than when you sow the seed.  This means you need to back up about 8 weeks on the calendar from your planting date to figure out the latest date to sow the seed.  If you sow the seed closely, go ahead and plan to divide the plants so you can put each in its own pot to get nice and big before you transplant into the garden.

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