Spring officially started this week and it couldn’t come soon enough! With spring brings the promise of summer, warmer weather, BBQs with the family and of course a beautiful garden to admire.
In my neck of the woods the growing season is fairly short. We have about 4 months from the last frost at the end of May to the first frost at the end of September. So because I love fresh veggies from the garden and a beautiful yard to look out on, I’ve started growing seeds indoors. This gives them head start before we’re able to get them in the ground.
Last year I started basil, tomatoes, zucchinis, and impatience inside. They all took and did really well … initially. Where I failed miserably was with the hardening of the plants. Hardening is when you slowly introduce the plants to the outside over the course of several weeks to get them used to the outside conditions. Yeah, not so much. The tomatoes faired well through the shock as did the basil but the impatience and zucchinis definitely didn’t.
This year I’ve got the same line up with snapdragons thrown in the mix. I’ll make a better plan to harden them this year though.
So my questions to you:
Do you get a jump start on the growing season by starting seeds indoors? Do you have any tips for me?
What flowers or veggies are you most successful with?
What typically fills your garden?
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Hi, I’ve been enjoying reading your blog. We’re big kitchen gardeners, so I’ll share what we’ve learned… We do tomatoes inside, everything else gets stuck straight in the ground. Sometimes we do better than other times at hardening off (“wait, I thought *you* took the plants in last night”…) – last year our tomato plants didn’t do well and we wound up buying a bunch of plants. Plant way more than you need- seeds are relatively inexpensive, and you can usually find someone who will take extra plants off your hands if you’re too successful. Although I haven’t tried it, I’ve heard that squash (like zucchini) is notoriously difficult to transplant. If you know of someone replacing their single-paned windows, you can rig up a cold frame and extend your season. We have a bunch of root vegetables and a lettuce mix under ours already. Also, there are some really short-season peas, beets, turnips (they are actually really tasty raw with dressing!), and radishes.
For some reason, we’ve never done very well with basil outside, but it grows great all year in pots inside… Also, we’ve never gotten the hang of peppers, but I think we’re going to give it another shot this year.
Have fun!
Hi Allison
This is great! I hadn’t thought of making a cold frame that’s a great idea. I had one zucchini plant come back from the brink to produce 3 zucchinis last year. Yes very tough. I had the exact opposite experience with basil. The plants that I put in the ground did amazingly well and the ones I had in pots were TINY! I hope it does as well this year as last year. I’m all out of pesto now so can’t wait to make more! Thanks for sharing and good luck!
I have actually never started a plant from seed, except for in class as a kid. You have inspired me. It is pretty cold in Idaho right now, so I think starting indoors would be a good idea. I bet the kids would love it!
No, when we planted last year (our first time with a garden), we started them all from seed outdoors. Most of them grew, but the harvest was not good. :( Maybe this year… if I ever get around to planting. >.> It is already 80 degrees outside.
Hi Wendy, That’s great and I think you’re right the kids would love it! :)
Hi Rebecca, 80 degrees seems like fine weather to get out and start planting. I wish you better luck this year!
We never do. It’s our tradition to wait for Easter weekend to plant the seeds in the garden. We’ve purchased starts from the Farmers Market several times and they just don’t grow like seeds. It takes a while for the starts to get acclimated to the different soil, or so we believe. I do like to plant basil, jalapeno & other things indoors that won’t grow well outside in our climate. We live in the Pacific Northwest in Zone 7.
I start my seeds on a paper towel until they germinate – then transfer to 3″polystyrene pots and place them on our living room window sill (this gets lots of sun as it faces South) Once the garage stays up to mid single digits C at night – (we have a big south facing window) – all pots are moved into the garage to “harden up”. My hubby made wooden “trays” that hold 15 pots so easy to move around. Tomatoes, basil, peppers, cukes, parsley and various flowers have all been relatively successful. Herbs – ermmm – no luck!
How do you harden the plants without having a house full of ants? I attempted this only once, and the critter population in our house ensured that all plants would subsequently stay either indoors or outdoors.
So, I normally direct sow and I’m in the mid-Atlantic, but there are exceptions. For instance, I propagate cuttings of sweet potato in aquaculture all winter and then transplant in the summer. Thus I save money on plants. I’m starting a few things in trays this year, but only during the last couple weeks when frost is an option. I’ll transplant them as pretty small seedlings and I leave them outside during the day, only bring them in at night when the temp is sub freezing.
Everything that can get started indoors we do. We start indoors and then move to cold frames once the true leaves show. After a couple of weeks getting used to being outdoors in the wind, we transplant into the garden. The advantage of doing this is it keeps weeding down to a minimum and it extends growing season in that our plants are about a month old when it’s warm enough to put them in the ground.