More seeds and plantings this week end!

Newly planted onion sets (center) next to fall planted garlic (on left)

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Spring planting of cool temperature loving crops continued this week end!  

I planted onion sets of sweet onions, white cooking onions and red onions.  Since I live in Kentucky, I went with day neutral onions this year.  There are long day, intermediate day and short day onions.  Long day onions are grown in the north where the summer days are long (think of Alaska having 24 hours of sun in the summer) and planted in the spring.  Short day onions are those grown in the South that have shorter summer days.  These are planted in the fall and grow over the winter.

Onions require lots of fertilizer to reach their full size.  Be sure to fertilize at planting.  Onions will be ready to harvest as spring or new onions in a month or two.  They will achieve full size in 95-135 days.  Everything to know about growing onions

I also planted more edible plant seeds in pots on the deck: Cilantro, Flat Leaf Italian parsley, Purple roach, Alpine strawberries, Rocket arugula, Dukat dill, Red veined sorrel, salad burnet, Garlic chives, and Rat's tail.  I also planted a pot of variety of colors of alyssum.  They are short, pretty, and have great fragrance.  I love planted them around the edge of the garden beds.

Before you plant into your pots, be sure to refresh their soil.  Pots have a lot less soil to contain nutrients to feed your plants so they need to be fertilized more often than the garden bed.  Re-energize your potting soil!

I over-seeded the pots.  I'll gently remove the seedlings and transplant into the garden bed after they are sturdy.  Pots warm up quicker in the spring than the garden beds does, supporting better germination and quicker growth in the early spring months.  I may place a supported plastic cover over the pots to help them get even warmer and give the seeds a boost.

Now is a great time to get your garden beds ready for spring planting.  Do a soil test to see what your garden needs in the nutrient department.  There are kits you can do at home or take a soil sample to your local co-op office.  If that is too much for you, fertilize with a balanced, organic fertilizer at the rate on the package.  Cover with mulch to keep the fertilizer in the garden.

If you want to go the extra mile and do an in-depth soil test to see exactly what minerals your plants need instead of just the NPK standard tests, here is a blog that describes how to do this:  The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals  The more nutrition you give your edibles, the more you will get in your food.

If you want to try making your own balanced fertilizer, it is easy and inexpensive.  Here's how:  Make your own fertilizer, it's all natural and inexpensive

Happy spring gardening!