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| Sprouting broccoli |
Saturday, March 23, 2019
It has been looking and feeling like spring this couple of weeks. The grass is turning green, the daffodils, forsythias, and hyacinths are blooming. It's a great time to start spring planting outdoors and seed starting indoors.
The lettuce seeds I sowed in my portable greenhouse a month ago are about 4" or so tall. The chard, sorrel, chickweed, arugula corn salad, and sprouting broccoli are all going strong, having overwintered in the portable greenhouse. My Egyptian walking onions are vibrant in both the garden and pot. They do well year round. I am harvesting the greens and onions each day.
Our local hardware store and big box stores have transplants in for cold crops like lettuce, spinach, cabbage, kale, chard and onions as well as herbs like rosemary, basil, chives, and lavender. It's a little early for basil to be planted outdoors. Plant basil when you plant your tomatoes. You could put it in a pot indoors to give it a head start.
Care of veggies you can plant now:
Spinach (Bordeaux, Giant Winter, Oriental Giant)-ready to harvest in 30-45 days
Beets-ready to harvest in 60 days
Chard (Perpetual, Fordhook Giant, Verde Taglio, Neon Glow)-ready to harvest in 50-70 days
Lettuce mix (red and green varieties)-ready to harvest in 29-60 days
Carrots (Rainbow, Gniff, Cosmic Purple)-ready to harvest in 60-110 days. Can harvest sooner as baby carrots. All you need to know about growing carrots
Onions (Australian Brown, Flat of Italy, Bronze d'Amposta)-ready to harvest in 70-150 days
Radishes-ready to harvest in 20-30 days
Turnips-ready to harvest 40-55 days
Greens (Belle Isle Cress, Corn Salad or Vit or Lamb's Lettuce or Mache, Black Magic Kale, Chervil)-ready to harvest in 50-70 days
Broccoli-ready to harvest in 50-250 days depending on the variety
Cabbage-ready to harvest in 45-90 days
Herbs-parsley, chives, rosemary, thyme
Peas-ready to harvest 40-70 days depending on the variety
Potatoes-ready to harvest 2.5 to 4 months
Planting the seeds and plants in the mini greenhouse will keep them much warmer and protect them from freezing temps we will continue to get until May. They'll sprout and grow faster.
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| Mini greenhouse covering 3 large pots |
Leafy greens like nitrogen. Root crops like potassium. You can get nitrogen from compost, alfalfa, soybean meal or fish emulsion. Potassium can be gotten from green sand via its potash content. Fish emulsion actually gives not only nitrogen, but also potassium and phosphorous.
After planting, I watered in the pots with fish emulsion. Germination takes anywhere from 4-15 days for most seeds under the right temperatures. Ideal soil temperatures for starting your seeds
Happy planting!
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