Thursday, April 26, 2012

Timing the seedlings

Nearing the end of April & I've only just started seedlings.  It seems so late to be going, but my little corner patch is something of a heavy soil, & one half has poorer drainage, so the soil is still very cold.  Earlier this month it seemed like summer had arrived early, but we are back to early spring weather: damp, chilled, windy, & a frost warning last night! 

The weather in my part of Connecticut just isn't stable enough to put anything into the garden until around Mothers' Day (3rd Sunday in May). Even thought it kills me to have to wait 'so long'! So my little seeds will stay inside, in front of the window, with light fertilizer to encourage strong growth.  In another week or two, I will break up the soil, add amendments, & let the lengthening sun-hours warm it all up.  By the time the little plant-lets have their secondary leaves, it will be a nice fluffy soil for them to bed in.

This year I will also add a few containers (dill, easter egg radishes, spearment, clove pinks) along with sunflowers, marigolds, cucumbers, red cabbage, lettuce mix, tomato, basil, cinnamon basil, german chamomile, mugwort, & wild roses.  I really hope that most of them take sprout!

3 comments:

  1. ooo, i like the sounds of what you're planting, I have never heard of Easter egg radishes, thankyou for the kind words today,

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  2. I've planned to plant some more edibles on our balcony, but haven't gotten beyond some herbs, strawberries (in the kitchen window, to be transferred to the outside next week) and an apple tree yet. Okay, I am also experimenting with pineapple, but that is not really an edible, at least not with our weather, I guess. In my future, I hope to see tomatoes, lettuce and - of course - more herbs. I'll call it "the medium container gardening experiment".

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  3. Everybody seems to be further ahead than I am. I Haven't planted anything. They've been fixing the terrace and I doubt they'll be done before the end of the summer. So I'll be looking at things for the fall *sigh*

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