According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, Spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere on March 20, 2012, at 1:14 A.M. Let the countdown begin! If you live in the Midwest region of the U.S. (like us) you better get your seeds started inside to get a jump on summer. Now is the time to start: Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Leeks, Onions and most importantly Peppers, Tomatoes. A lot of seeds can be sown directly into the earth but these guys need a head start.
Get your order into Baker Creek (my favorite seed company that only sells heirloom seeds and NO GMO’s) There is also a really cool site that you type in your zip code and it figures out when you should start what veggie. http://sproutrobot.com/ If you don’t know how to start seeds inside I have to quote the movie Tommy Boy by saying “I’d have to hit you in the back of the head with a tack hammer.” Cause it’s that easy…. Get some seeds, some dirt, a couple of lights and wait.
Soon, it’ll be planted and you’ll have fresh veggies on the horizon, like these cherry tomatoes. I plant cherry (or grape) tomatoes just to munch them fresh off the plant while I’m working in the garden. They’re so sweet and delicious.
Corn you sow directly into the ground and in 75 short days it looks like this. Nothing is better in the summer than hand picked (in the morning) sweet corn roasted on the grill.
Ahhh Spring flowers from last season. I always plant a lot of flowers around the garden to attract pollinators and of course there’s the aesthetic reasons…
I miss our goats. They were a funny pair around the farm.
Also, one quick question for any soil experts out there. We’ve had an extremely mild winter in Ohio. Usually at this time of the year, the ground is frozen solid 30″ deep. This year, it’s been so warm the ground never froze. My question is; What effect on the soil does this mean? Since it never froze did the insects never die? Did the bacteria never break down?
Not all bugs are bad. My upcoming post will discuss beneficial insects for your garden. Like this praying mantis I snapped a picture of in the rear field. After that post I’ll be going over “Making Your own Worm Farm” with Red Wigglers.
We ordered our seeds from Baker Creek this year–they have such a great selection (and a gorgeous catalog!) Can’t wait to start them indoors when they get here. Thanks so much for posting!
I agree Liz, Baker Creek has thee best catalog out there, loaded with info.
I’m busy clearing away other projects in the basement for seed starting trays! Amazing how much cleaning can get done when the motivation is the promise of a fresh, ripe tomato.
Loved the rainbow!! We have had a mild winter here too in the UK, with little frost or snow. Yesterday we had hail but today the sun is shining again. I too was wondering if it has been cold enough for the raspberries that like the frost. We will have to see what the season brings.
Here in NJ, we had frozen ground for a while but mostly mild, too. I just saw mosquitoes last week and insects are a concern for me. I do remember another mild winter wher we had an increase in all insects the following spring.
This is the reason for giving your dogs heartworm medicine, and flea and tick medicine, all year around. The vets concur. Going to put more mosquito rings in the Lost Lake (pond) today.
In my humble opinion…you will have bugs. Sigh!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/
OK, you did it….I’m pumped 🙂 I keep asking the farmer why we don’t have one of those little greenhouses to start seeds in. My biggest complain – WEEDS! Time to start planning.
without hard or prolonged freezes you can expect an increase in insect activity. As one poster said, the mosquitoes will be a more prolonged problem, but a touch of copper in their water beds should kill them. Thanks for the tips.
Thanks Ed. I was wondering about garden pests like slugs, aphids, etc… I wonder if we’re going to have a tough year ahead of us.
May I suggest you add to your menagerie? Guineas will eat the garden bugs without tearing up the garden as chickens do. We were going to try guineas last year – but between getting sub-standard birds from the hatchery and a dog that killed over ten of the juvenile birds, we only have 6 guinea hens left. Keep in mind tho that guineas are not for everyone. If you have close neighbors – they might be a problem as they are quite loud.
We buy a lot of seeds and such from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. They have lots of heritage seeds and actually do germ tests and print the results on the packages. A couple of years ago, they shipped less than we ordered – we didn’t notice but THEY did and sent the rest of the seeds with an apology! When’s the last time you got service like that from Wal-Mart?!?! ;-D Johnny’s also has the helpful things like recommended planting dates and such – and last fall they had a “plant by” page where you put in your location and they list the plants that you can expect to mature and yield before frost.
Another tip for all to heed – it may be “spring” but that doesn’t mean you can plant outside yet. An internet search of your State’s Ag department/ Extension service will probably turn up a map for you showing your State and the “First Frost” dates and “Last Frost” dates. Find your home on the map and win a prize!!! ;-D Also although frost may be gone for the season, that doesn’t mean the seeds you plant will grow. For example – corn requires a soil temp of at least 70 degrees F for the seeds to germinate. READ the seed packages!!! 🙂
I will be writing and posting another garden article on my blog soon – we’re trying something NEW for us – “Soil Blocks” (for early seed starting.) And we bought us a small green house – one of the cheap ones – but haven’t had time to erect it yet. We are also located on a high hill, and so are concerned about its durability in winds as we frequently get sustained winds of 30 mph and higher here, as well as wind shear and micro-bursts.
We Are also ready and waiting for spring. Thanks for the sproutbot link- what a great site!! Super handy.
Quick question. I heard that you have to sterilize seed trays before planting starter seeds. I have the trays I used last year. Do I have to sterilize them? How do I do that so it does not contaminate my seeds? Thanks. LOVE your blog.
Hi Clare! You can use dish-washing soap and water or 1 part bleach & 9 parts water. Make sure you really clean them well, you don’t want your new seedlings to get a disease or mold from the previous year. Here’s a good link from Iowa State University: http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1994/3-16-1994/clean.html
Oh oh oh I spy some Zinnias! =)
We also use red wigglers in our earthworm beds. When I went home last time, I made sure to bring a 25-pound bag of castings back with me to use on my flowers. =) We also sell them in 5-pound increments. Yay worms!
Yay Worms!
Your blog makes me so happy! Thanks!
Thanks Tammy! Your nice comment made me happy 🙂
Thanks for brightening my day 16 days until Spring Yay!!! The goats were so funny and cute….Ready for the great garden veggies….yum!!!
Yes, that’s enough to send me back to the seed catalogues! It’s garden planning time.
We’ve had the opposite — a hard frost in February, which is an anomaly. Usually we don’t get a proper frost at all, and I can attest to the fact that this leads to bugs galore. The chickens help at keeping them in check, though. (But the mosquitoes are a problem) I’ve started my seed sowing and there are some Baker’s Creek tomatoes growing in paper pots on my window sill right now.
A friend of mine who grew up in Indiana told me that “Yankee corn” takes so wonderful, because the ground does freeze, so it might not taste as good this year, I hate to tell you. We lived in CT for one year, and at the end of the summer, we ate so much corn, because it was so very good! People grow corn around Houston, and we eat it, but it’s not as good as yours.
Winter has been the same here in Ontario. We’re definitely concerned about the over wintering bugs…as you pointed out it hasn’t been cold enough to kill them off properly, but only time will tell if this will have major impacts. It’s something we’re bracing for though. (Great pics BTW)
I am definately checking out Baker Creek. I have to order some seeds. I am dreaming of spring right now. Here in the mountains of Colorado March will be our snowiest month. Is snowiest a word….?
Thanks for the link to sproutrobot…really cool
I agree – thanks for sharing sproutrobot. I’ve been trying to find something like this!
I want to come and visit your beautiful farm!
While you are anticipating Spring, down here in Australia we’re getting set for winter. We have mild, dry winters here, although at the moment you wouldn’t know it because it has rained non-stop for three days this past week and is not looking like fining up again until tomorrow afternoon.
Our garden is awash in water and mud, the chickens are complaining bitterly at not being let out to forage and to add insult to injury, last night, their coop was invaded by a python!
At least life is never dull around here!
Hi Maggie…you must be mainland…we are in Tassie and looking forwards to a bit of your rain as we haven’t really had much this year to speak of. Hope your girls stop complaining…I just noticed the “python” bit so you must be up north somewhere. No pythons here so our lot breed exponentially.
Hi Narf7
I am up in Queensland on the *laughs* “Sunshine” Coast. I swear some joker thought he was being funny when they named this region. It has the highest rainfall index of anywhere in Queensland!
While Tassie has had an unusually hot Summer this year, our Summer up here has been one of the coolest on record. It’s a funny old world we live in, eh?
Did you catch the python? Eating a bird should make it sleepy – and a sleepy python is a tasty python!
I’m so thrilled that spring is on its way! Thanks for the reminder and the helpful links!
Looking forward to your worm post, that’s on thing I haven’t gotten started yet.
Next year I’ll be looking more into starting seeds, but this year I went ahead and put all the seeds in the ground. I live in Florida so our spring planting season has already been in full swing for about 2 weeks now!
Great post, we must be 15 days away from autumn over here…bring it on! We have had a pretty hot summer for what should be a somewhat mild temperate zone so we are most probably going to get a fairly cold winter (4 year cycle). I was as curious as you were about the soil microbes and organisms so went hunting and found this really interesting reader friendly version of what happens to the soil when it freezes and the life that is held within it…
http://www.bountea.com/articles/lifeinwintersoil.html
Check it out, it was a good read :o) I am eating lots of cherry tomatoes as I type this comment thanks to my neighbours overabundance of those most delicious little sweeties. Some of them actually tasted like grapes this year they were that sweet. Might have to ask her what variety they were for us to plant next year. Cheers again for such a great post
Thanks for the website, can’t wait to check it out. Lemme know what variety you’re eating. We’ll have to try them. It was predicted that our area (Midwest U.S.) was going to have a terribly brutal winter but we’ve had one of the warmest on record.
I have also seen lots of birds very ealry this year, which brings to mind that all early insects have early predators, too. I hope the balance that I have in mind works out.
Love this, I’m very excited to plant my first vegetables. Thanks for posting the sprout robot site, very useful!
Fab photos – and all that sunshine to keep you warm.
So excited to see the beneficial insect post! Woo Hoo!
A very very nice post. Spring has almost sprung.
I tried that sproutrobot calculator and I am unsure about their zoning. I am 9b and already have okra, tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers out in the ground. Lettuce and spinach planting (w/o row covers) has already past and yet it was telling me to plant lettuce this week and start tomatoes inside in two weeks.
Just wanted to let others know it may have some glitches, it is a program after all.
I love your blog! Very excited to have found you.
I started a ton of tomatoes indoors (as you read) and I need to get those babies all planted soon. Can’t wait for the harvest!
We’ve got the same issues here in central Canada, where winters are milder every year. It’ll extend the growing season, but it’s going to cause trouble in other ways. Wonderful photos and I can’t wait for your bug post!
Oh, I wish I still had space to grow vegetables. I have a very small city lot that used to be lots of sun, but now is mostly shade. So instead of planting, I get my organic vegetables from a local CSA. But I did used to enjoy the fruits of planting and harvesting! Thx for sharing sproutrobot.
Spring , I am so excited…my gardens are calling.
Jess
I bought all Baker Creek seeds this year, after such a high germination percentage with them last year! And you quoted “Tommy Boy” !!!! Points for you!
Stacey
Thanks for stopping by and liking my blog! Your pictures are great. I’m looking forward to next week’s post, I’ve considered adding some worms to my planter box.
So, it’s not just an ‘English’ thing to be fascinated by the weather, must be a ‘Gardeners’ thing instead!
Awesome pic’s, nice
Thanks for stopping by my blog today. It has been a very mild winter for most places in the US, and it will probably have an effect on the insect population. The insects will survive most cold weather, but the warmer and earlier Spring rolls around makes a difference. They come out of hibernation earlier and start reproducing earlier which causes the numbers to build up quickly. You get an extra generation to hatch out, and each progressive generation is a geometric progression to cause the numbers to build up tremendously. So yes, you should expect to see greater numbers of insects, especially later in the season.
I enjoy reading your blog and wanted to let you know that I have passed along the Versatile Blogger Award to you. There are two requirements to accepting the award — you should share seven things about yourself with your audience and pass the award along to seven deserving blogs. Thanks for sharing your world with your readers!
On another note, I LOVE Baker Creek and was fortunate enough to stumble upon a booth they hosted that was full of free seed packets. Score! Their catalog is like gardener porn. http://www.honeybeagotheart.wordpress.com
Spring is always such an exciting time of year! I will miss the gardening process this summer as we travel, but I always look forward to coming back to it. There is nothing like garden fresh produce!
I’m no entomologist so I can’t say much about the bugs – but the microbes generally just go into dormancy when it gets cold, then wake back up when it warms up. So if they were awake all winter, the nutrients they recycle might be floating around the soil somewhere rather than in the microbes themselves.
We are counting down to spring too! Although it may be 6 more weeks before the tomatoes, peppers and basil get plant outdoors in the garden (though they might get repotted at least one more time before then). We start jalapenos, 2 kinds of tomatoes (I may grow up to 12 vatieties this year) and basil the last week for Jan, more tomatoes, some cabbage family (which didn’t do to well) sweet peppers, zinnas and marigolds 3 weeks later. Bonus, hubby and the kids got me one of those mini greenhouse shelf things and 4 grow lights for my birthday the 3rd week of Feb. South Dakota usually doesn’t have last frost until Memorial Day weekend. We’ve been busy prepping exisiting garden beds, building new ones etc. in the garden and last weekend brought the birth of a baby goat and a litter of puppies. I was excited to plant lettuce last weekend.
I’m so excited for spring! It was so great to get my seeds going this week.
Thank you for stopping by my blog. Ironic you should bring up the topic of cold/warm winters and bugs. I just learned this week at a Master Gardener’s meeting that one of the biggest concerns regarding the warm winter is that may not have been cold enough to kill off the bugs…..
I can see why you miss the goats–adorable! And goats are smart and social. Me, I’m about to see how much I can learn about what beneficial insects are best adapted to our relatively new home here in north Texas. Those will be my ‘animal companions’ for the time being!
It appears we share many common interests. My son (nearly 21) was my ‘bug man’. Learned all about beneficials in the garden! I planted a ‘scratch ‘n sniff’ garden just for him (a fun way to identify plants and peak their interest) when he was barely walking!
Cold frames – an alternative to greenhouses!
P.S. I didn’t know you had goats….
Great blog! I hate to say it, but I think us in southern Ontario have beat you to spring 😀
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