Early Planting 2015

This week was a wet week in my neighborhood. We had tornado watch and lots of rain the other day.  The temperature remains between 40 and 50 degree F.  This temperature is too cold for pepper and tomato plants. But I still planted my pepper seedlings and tomato plants in the garden.  I covered them with empty bottles from wind and cold temperature. I checked on them yesterday and they seems to be growing very well.

I have yet to see the lettuces and radishes seeds sprouting. Even the peas are not coming up yet.  I am sure the seeds will break out from their dormancy as soon as the temperature remains high for several days.  It surely does feels like winter at times despite being in April. For this year’s growing season, I will plant all of my cucumber and squash seeds. I have so many collections over the years and I think it is time for them to hit the ground.

I did sow the yellow pear shape cherry tomato and the Carolina Gold tomato. These two packets of old seeds sprouted beautifully. I am giving away some of them to my co-worker. I have planted some in the garden with protection from the milk jugs.  I still have some more in my kitchen that I am waiting for the soil to warm up more before I planted them in the garden.

Besides cucumber, squash, tomato and pepper, I also plan to grow more watermelon. I have a few packets of old seeds of watermelon that I need to use.  I have sowed about 4 30-foot rows of peas. They are mostly sugar snap peas. I will also grow snow peas for my mother in law. I still have a few more pea seeds that need to go into the ground.

A friend of mine gave kang-kung seeds. I am growing them in a container at home. The garden is too dry and might not be suitable for them. She also gave some red a-foot long beans. That is very interesting and I cannot wait to grow them. In returned, I gave her my favorite purple string beans. In the past, I never get any disease or bugs on the purple string beans. Their beans are prolific. The taste is great. The purple beans will turn green when cooked. It was very easy to grow them.

I have planted all of the onion sets. I hope they are going to grow well despite the cold temperature. In between the onion, I sowed the beet, kohlrabi and the carrot seeds. I am pretty much finished putting in the seeds in the garden.

Once the weather is warmer, I will plant the Malabar spinach, lemongrass and stevia plants. They are rooting nicely in my kitchen. Soon they are ready to go into the ground.

Happy gardening!