2020 Garden Update: February 21

We've had nasty, cold, wet weather this week, and I have been down with a nasty cold myself, but the garden babies continue to grow at their own pace. Outside the lettuce rows have sprouted, and there's now solid evidence of pea sprouts from the Lincoln green peas in the raised bed. My second crop of lettuce, sown in a large pot, has also sprouted, although I have yet to see any signs of the carrots. All three of the lettuce varieties are doing well, and eventually I will have to thin the rows so that the heads will have room to grow, but we aren't there yet.

Inside the Jiffy pots are full of seedlings. The tomatoes are getting their first true leaves, and the squash seedlings are really getting long and turning into vines. I might have lost one of my pots of DAR Cucumber, having been too sick to come upstairs and check on them for a few days, but I have plenty of backups and can plant more seeds directly outdoors in April if I need to. The Jiffy pots will also need thinning soon, but I want to wait a little longer to see which sprouts do the best with early leaf formation.

During the last warm weather over the Presidents Day weekend, we bought more garden soil for the raised beds and also picked up several bags of plants at Costco to start filling in the shade bed along the patio. It's a very sheltered area so not exposed to the worst of the cold and wind, and when we moved in the only things growing there were clumps of boring monkey grass. We planted hostas and astilbe and will see how they get along until April, when we can start filling in with more plants from the local garden centers. I hope to add some bleeding heart and ferns and other shade lovers eventually.

The daylilies and daffodils continue to shrug at whatever the weather dishes out, but I can tell that we will have plenty of empty spots in the bank bed to fill once spring arrives. Luckily I keep getting plant catalogs in the mail to give me ideas!

2020 Planting Record: February 11

The first round of lettuce has sprouted in the raised bed, but the Lincoln green peas have not yet shown any signs of germination, so I ventured out this morning while it wasn't raining to get a few more cool crop seeds started.

Seeds planted on Tuesday, February 11, 2020:

Salad Bowl Lettuce (Burpee)
Little Gem Lettuce (Baker Creek)
Garden Sweet Green Peas (Burpee)
Parisienne Carrots (Baker Creek)
Little Finger Carrots (Baker Creek)

Except for the Little Gem Lettuce, all of these are seeds left over from last year, so I expect slightly lower germination rates. So far all three of my lettuce varieties are sprouting nicely, and I'd like to have at least a second round of lettuce before it gets too hot.

Last year the Garden Sweet Green Peas were a bit hit and grew readily, and I'm feeling impatient about the Lincoln peas not sprouting yet. We'll see if this new round of Garden Sweet takes off!

Garden Sweet Peas from 2019

I have yet to have any luck at all with carrots, but since I have the seeds I am giving them one more go. It's a bit early to sow them, but my garden is very sheltered with its narrow space and high privacy fence, and I've got more of the seeds in a large pot that can be moved if some truly terrible weather heads our way. I would really like to grow a few decent carrots!

The problem with cool weather crops here in North Alabama is that our winters are wildly variable and spring gets very warm very quickly. We can have 60-70 degree days throughout the winter and then rocket up to 90 degrees early in the spring and stay there through October. I often wonder if our planting schedules and general advice really take the effects of climate change into account. I'm experimenting with the carrot seeds to see if I have any better luck with them by planting them in weather that feels more like a typical old-fashioned spring than our actual spring feels like these days.

2020 Garden Update: February 10

We've had wet, warm weather much of the last week here in North Alabama, which means lots of plants are sprouting and growing outdoors. With a cold snap moving in this week, I'm hopeful that my sheltered backyard will be protected from the worst of any frost, but the only seeds already planted there (green peas and lettuces) are cold hardy, anyway. Still, there has been plenty to do whenever the sun comes out!

My indoor seeds are doing well, with the Purple Bumblebee tomatoes germinating really nicely in spite of being seeds left over from last year. The sunflower and cucumber seeds are also sprouting robustly. Hopefully the few stragglers will make an appearance soon. The zucchini, the Purple Russian tomatoes, and the straightneck yellow squash are the only seeds not to show any signs of life yet, and all of those are also leftovers from last year.

Outdoors we are slowly bringing in garden soil for the raised beds (always a big expense and a lot of work when you have to start from scratch!). We went back to the old house and divided some of the daylilies and irises already growing there and transplanted some babies to the front yard beds at the new house. There will be plenty growing for the new owners at the old place, but now they won't have to be divided as soon over there. Hopefully our transplants will spread and grow as well as they had in the old garden! If the cold snaps should kill any of our transplants it will be OK because we can replace them later.

The daffodils are coming along in the front and back beds, and we have our first flowers now, which is very exciting. I'm already wishing we had planted more bulbs back in the fall! This coming fall I will have a better sense of the new garden spaces and what I want them to include and look like through each season, but I expect to have 15-20 years with this garden to make it everything it can be.

While I'm at it, here's a reminder to novice gardeners not to plant mint in open areas or large beds. It will take over! The previous owner planted mint in the front beds, and I have been pulling it up nonstop ever since we moved in. I love mint, but I always grow it in a container because it's so opportunistic. Put your mint in a nice big pot and let it poke along through the winter. It is really hard to kill!

That's the garden update for February 10, 2020. I'll post a report on the progress again next week!

First Sprouts of the Season!

It's February 5, 2020, and today I spotted the first sprout of the season from the indoor seeds. The Dragon's Egg Cucumber is the first to put forth a real sprout, but it looks like the DAR Cucumber will not be far behind. I'm really looking forward to tasting these new cucumber varieties, but right now I'm delighted to see the tiny seedlings emerging from the soil.

My indoor seeds are sitting in an upstairs room in front of a sunny window, so they're very warm and well lit and protected from curious cats. I've started them in Jiffy pots in seed starter mix. Last year I had a plastic starter tray, but this year I wanted to reduce my plastics use and have a very easy transition for the plants into their eventual garden homes. It was sometimes tricky to get the seedlings out of the plastic trays last year, and I have fewer extras this year to risk losing.

I'll post new pictures and updates as the seeds continue to sprout. What are you starting from seed this year, and what are you planting directly into the garden? Let me know in the comments!


* Dragon's Egg Cucumber and DAR Cucumber seeds from Baker Creek Seeds.

Time to Start Seeds!

It's February, which means it's time to get several garden projects started for 2020. Luckily we had a beautiful sunny day and warm weather this weekend, perfect for trips to the garden center and some time outside. A few hardy cool weather crops can be planted in Zone 7a right now, while others can be started indoors from seed. I've got big plans for the new kitchen garden this year, so I've got both outdoor and indoor seeds ready to go!

We have a lot of work to do in the kitchen garden this year because it's a new space with the disappointing soil you'd expect in a new construction area. We'll be adding garden soil to the raised beds as the spring progresses, but today we only needed one box ready for the green peas and lettuce. Last year I started both much later than I should have, and the hot weather arrived early, so we had less time to enjoy them. I've got green pea seeds planted in the back half of the garden box and three rows of lettuce (one row of each type I have) in the front half, with a concrete block in the center to serve as a stepping stone. Ideally I'd have access to the box on both long sides, but the small space and sloped yard mean the boxes have to be against the fence (we've also found at least two cables barely buried by internet providers, etc., so we have to work around those, as well).

My lettuces this year are Salad Bowl, Little Gem, and Meveille des Quatres Saisons, the last being the freebie I got with my Baker Creek Seeds order. I grew Salad Bowl last year but hope to have much better luck this time because I'm getting it started on schedule and won't have to worry about the heat so much. My green peas are the Lincoln variety from Baker Creek. I have some left over from last year and might plant them a little later. Everyone at our house loved the green peas last year, and I know we'll eat as many as I can grow!

I also got my indoor seeds started today. I have 26 Jiffy pots with a variety of squash, cucumber, tomato, and sunflower. I've set up my seed starter space in a sunny upstairs room where the cats can't knock the cups over (assuming we keep the door closed!). For most of the seeds I planted 2-3 seeds in each cup, with two cups per variety. Because the new garden is small I will have to choose the best seedling to plant and give the runners up to gardening friends. I don't really need to grow the sunflowers from seed indoors - they'll grow just fine from seed outside in April - but I like the morale boost of sunflower seedlings, and I have several kinds this year that I'm really curious to see grow.

Seeds started indoors on February 2nd:

Green Bush Zucchini (Baker Creek)
White Scallop Squash (Baker Creek)
Lemon Squash (Baker Creek)
Straightneck Yellow Squash
Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry Tomato (Baker Creek)
Purple Bumblebee Tomato (Baker Creek)
Purple Russian Tomato (Baker Creek)
DAR Cucumber (Baker Creek)
Dragon's Egg Cucumber (Baker Creek)
Dwarf Teddy Bear Sunflower (Ferry-Morse)
Dwarf Sunspot Sunflower (Ferry-Morse)
Gold Coin Sunflower (Baker Creek)

I'm using Jiffy pots because I'm trying to use less plastic going forward, and they're easy to label clearly, so I should be able to tell which plants are doing the best from each category. I'll post updates as the seeds sprout!