We Have Babies!

It's been a while since I last posted here - sorry about that!  March has been an incredibly busy time for me.  Besides the every day hectic pace of working, I've also been busy attending horse shows and craft fairs!  It's amazing I even remembered to plant anything!

One thing I found that has been pretty darn cool to use, and it's FREE, is an online program to help you plan out your garden and figure out when to plant things and it has all sorts of cool tools, is www.smartgardener.com

The website is free and there's so much information on there, from germination information to garden pests, to tips and tricks.  You can even set it up to send you e-mail reminders of what needs to be done that week.  I used it to plan out my garden.  This year's garden will be 23' x 23' in size.  Last year's garden was 14' x 13' - so we're going a bit bigger :P  The main reason for this is that I want to grow double the corn I did last year (100+ plants this year) and we're trying a bunch of other new veggies this year.

Another new thing I tried this year was a seedling heating mat.  I mentioned the one I got in a previous post.  Using this seedling heating mat has DEFINITELY sped up the process of germination, especially for the peppers!  My peppers, which include california wonder, thai chilis, jalapenos, and habaneros, all germinated in about a week with the mat.  Without the mat, it took almost 3 to 4 weeks since my house is kept at about 60-62 degrees F in the winter.  The other good news is the pepper seeds I bought last year, the california wonder, all germinated this year!  A testiment to mypatriotsupply.com's packaging.

I planted all my peppers, as well as the oregano, basil, and parsely on 2/15/2014.  They were removed from the heating mat about a week after the peppers came up.  The parsley and oregano took quite a bit longer to germinate, and only about half came up, so I have replanted more.

Here's what that tray looks like as of today, about a month later.

On Tuesday, 3/18/2014, I planted my tomatoes (four varieties - homestead, brandywine, cherry, and ace 55), cucumbers (two varieties - wisconsin (pickling) and marketmore), summer squash (yellow and black beauty), pumpkins, broccoli, cauliflower, and a little more basil, oregano, and parsley.

To my amazement, there were two pickling cucumbers and one yellow squash that had already germinated in less then 36 hours on the mat!!!  And today, less than 3 days later, ALL of my cucumbers and yellow squash have germinated, two of the three broccoli plants have germinated, one of the three cauliflowers have germinated, and one of the two basils has also come up!!  It's so exciting to see how well the mat works!  Here's a photo of that tray today.  The cucumbers are the really tall ones.  The row to the left contains the broccoli and cauliflower.  The row to the right of the cukes has the yellow squash.  Still waiting to see the tomatoes make an appearance.

For any of those struggling with seed germination, I highly recommend using one.

I will also be planting corn, carrots, and lettuce, but those I will direct sow.  Stay tuned for more pictures!