Seedlings

Spring isn't far away here.  The month started off chilly, a little snowy and extremely windy; March was definitely roaring in like a lion.  The days have been getting noticeably longer and the days no longer have that deep winter chill to them, though the night time temps are still dipping into the teens.  Despite the cold temps, things have started to grow around here.

I removed the plastic covering from the garlic bed to discover that they had finally begun to come up.  The hoop house that protected them from the chickens had been destroyed by high winds.  Now that the chickens are more contained I can take the plastic off and let them grow freely in the sunshine.

In another bed I had planted with spinach seeds sometime in November.  They sprouted and clung to life through the winter under the protection of another hoop house.  This hoop house survived the high winds so I will continue to leave them covered until Spring has officially arrived.  After that they may get too warm under the plastic and bolt.  The plants aren't very big yet, but if they continue growing as they have in the past couple of weeks then it won't be long until I can have fresh spinach salad again.

Indoors my veggie seedlings are coming along nicely.

My broccoli starts have started working on their second set of leaves and I hope to start hardening them off under a hoop house in just a few short weeks.  I would like them to be a little bigger before I set them outside.

The celery starts are still tiny but they are growing slowly.  Celery takes a long time to reach a transplant-able size which is the biggest reason I start them so early.  It will be a couple more months before the weather is warm enough for them to go outside, so they still have plenty of time to grow.

The peppers are looking good so far and I am happy that I have this many growing.  The seeds I used were a few years old, but obviously still viable.  Peppers are another crop that is slow to get going.  These were planted at the same time as the broccoli and celery and they are just now starting to grow their first set of true leaves.  They won't be going outside until the weather is good and warm for them so they have a few months to get bigger too.

These tomato seedlings are doing very well.  They were planted a full month after all the other starts and they have already surpassed the peppers and celery in size.  I planted them in fairly large pots because I expect them to get pretty big before the weather gets warm enough for them to go out into the garden.  If they start getting out of control indoors they might start early outside under the protection of a hoop house.

So far my garden looks like it is off to a good start.  In the next few weeks I will probably start planting onion sets outside and start a few rows of lettuce, turnips and spinach.