Planning and plotting...

Today i plan to pick the Kohlrabi. They are going to be on the small side, but they type i have (early purple vienna) isn't  supposed to get to baseball size. I do wish they were bigger, but i think the plant is more likely to try and regrow leaves first rather than continue enlarging its bulb so i'm just going to make a single meal of the golf ball sized veggie.  I think i could put down some buckwheat seeds to hold the space for the seedlings i'll plant later.

It looks like the garden remains unraided again today.  Three days in a row with no new defilement. 

Today is nice and cool, it would be a great day to catch up with weeding but hubby and the oldest are probably going to be out visiting his sister  today, so i won't have anyone to  watch the toddler.  I'd have her outside with me, but she won't stick around and sitting in the stroller is not good enough for her.  She loves being outside, which is great, but it has to be her playtime 100%, not my time to get anything done. :o)

I wish my bulbing fennel was either bigger or needed thinning cause i'd send some over to my sister in law (she's the Chef and beautiful things can be done with baby fennel). I'm going to try and pot up a couple rosemary plants for her if i have the time to get out there and do it before hubby and daughter #1 head out.

I had wanted to grow way more herbs than i was actually able to get out this year. I have some seeds that are perennials, like winter savory and peppermint, and i think either oregano and thyme are perennial- or both are, i'd have to look it up again.  Anyway, i lost many of them to frost and the rest i  still haven't planted because i don't have a permanent place for them yet. 

I wanted to get going on those flowerbeds by now but the heat and weather came in so it hasn't happened....  but when it does, i want to put the herbs in there i think. 
 

Just some reference pictures...

In a few blogs i read there are pictures of seedlings. Those who have a higher zone number than i do, their seedlings are giant. Some of those gardeners still have a couple weeks before their planting date still....  i think mine is about 35 days away at the least....  my seedlings sure look puny compared to those early planters.  This year is an experiment to see if Wintersowing actually gives me a boost on a short season or if i break even.  I hope it won't delay...  but if it breaks even, i have to say that having the seed flats outside is a relief, since the inside of the house isn't severely cluttered from it. I only have a light shelf for the houseplant type seedlings.

Anyway, here's the pics:

Burgundy Okra

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Point One Cabbage

I half hope this is the Strawberry. Out of 27 seeds its the only one up so far... :-/

Shiso, also spelled "Shisho"...

Should be a poppy. Out of most of a packet of seeds, only a few are showing up...  i sowed a whole flat.

Assorted melons, squashes and cucumbers

French Marigolds...  i let them get too dry by mistake, lost a few. But i have more seeds.

Gypsy Broccoli

Buttercrunch Lettuce

Polfast tomato

Purple tomatillo

Pruden's Purple tomato

Yellow Pear tomatoes

Collards and Pak Choi

Welsh Onions and Mirage Shallots

Chives all the way back, second from front on the left is the Burdock, left front is purple kohlrabi and then Red Russian kale on the right.  The other things are being slow to germinate.

Peppers, eggplant, a melon or two  and some very old tomato seeds that i am almost shocked to see them germinate at all, much less be numerous!

Sweet basil

Sweet marjoram

no less sweet itself.....Genovese basil...

And little grape is doing well.

Frost dates of America and more seeds started.

I found a great link for average frost dates for each state and even Canada:

Freeze/Frost Dates

I may be able to recalculate my "Days 'till Planting"  estimate since the one i use is anecdotal based on what i have been told since i was little.

"Don't plant anything until Memorial Day weekend".

I just kinda went with this, but the more i study it, it seems that a number of things can be planted well before that date.  Seeds cane even be sown before then also.  It never meant anything to me because i usually didn't have a lot of luck in tiny spaces, and had seedlings eaten by slugs and replaced them with nursery-grown. Or if i did use my own seedlings and they survived the slugs (usually tomatoes) we weren't dependent on it.  We won't really be dependent on it this year if all goes well, but i have read that a good sized, well tended home garden could save a family of 4 an estimated $500-1,000 a year in food costs...and that is the low end estimate i remember reading.  From a book more than 10 years old.   Yes there is cost outlay in supplies and tools, but most tools can last many years and supplies can also...

i'm thinking of my Remay...
i'm not so sure that will last a second season, but it might surprise me- but if it saves me even half its cost in what i would spend on bug chemicals - it will be nice cause last time i  did get a garden going the sweet peppers were colonized by earwigs, the tomatoes got hornworms (stripped the plants bare in 3 days) in late July- too late to replant...

I should have known better than to try a garden that year for the rain and me, still not fully recovered...  i hope i can manage this year, that's where the older daughter will have to step in.

My goodness, all this planning and i don't  even know if i am physically capable of doing it.  I must be crazy. *sigh*

...anyway, frost dates.  I just went by them and didn't know quite why. But i like the seed starting... this is something my grandparents did, but my parents didn't..  We always had a garden when i was growing up. I remember weeding and picking green beans in the hot sun when i was expected to do it as chore work... and i remember pinching tomatoes and a cucumber or two when i was out playing but didn't want to admit i was hungry lest i be expected to come inside and sit at the table then help clean it up.

Uggh, its a nice day. i can't focus.

So, i'm learning that with things like broccoli and carrots and kale, frost dates might not mean all that much even up here in zone 5.  I realized that some seeds can be planted outside weeks before the last frost date (and i don't mean just radishes) and with the use of low tunnel or hoop houses, the types of early seed increases.

I think its pretty exciting to realize that my limited growing season isn't set in stone as rigidly  as i had thought.
And i would like to be able to have as much of this garden understanding  as i can so that if we do need to depend on it some day, it won't feel like a reality check and it will almost come naturally.


Today's Seed Starting:

Kohlrabi, Purple Vienna- Pinetree
Kale, Red Russian- Pinetree
Italian Oregano- organic, Park Seeds
Chives, organic- Park Seeds
Burdock, Takinogawa Long- Pinetree
Italian Parsley- Richters
Winter Savory- Richters

I think it might be safe to sow the French Marigolds, i may get to that tonight, or first chance i get tomorrow.

I read another interesting tidbit today. To plant peppers in threes.... when the seedlings get their first set of true leaves, snip the weakest of the three, and let the remaining two grow as one plant.  The leaves protect the fruit from sun scald better than when grown alone.  I guess the two plants don't compete with each other.  I think i will try this.

I have cleaning to do now and the baby-naps are getting shorter and shorter! :)