My 2013 Garden!

Last year's garden theme was quantity-lots of tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers, but when I looked around I wasn't growing anything that interesting. This year's theme is diversity! So I'd like to plant different varieties of different vegetables. I'd still like to have an abundance, but with our relocation this year, I'll be working with a smaller plot than last year (last year was 10'x20', this year will be 6'x12', oy). I'm also not going to be as organized with the planning this year because, as last year proved, the best laid plans often go astray so I'm going to roll with it.

So this year, I still did my garden plan, but it will probably need revising and improvising as I see what takes off and what mood I'm in come planting time. I used www.gardeners.com. They have a great kitchen garden planner and best of all, it's free! I highly recommend it. It helps lay out spacing and gives tips on each plant.

Last night, I started habanero peppers (the holy-crap-hot peppers), banana peppers (the yum-these-are-good-on-sandwiches-or-pickled peppers), eggplant (the I'm-planting-these-for-Morgan-because-he's-been-telling-me-he-wants-to-make-his-grandmother's-Tunisian-stuffed-eggplant-recipe-and-last-year-yielded-almost-no-eggplant eggplant), and Roma tomatoes (the sauce tomatoes)!

I started 8 of each using my soil blocker. I put 2 seeds in each block. We'll see what happens. They are in a plastic gardening flat on a warm seed starting mat and will be under a grow light once they come up. All of these vegetables need at least 8 weeks indoors and some repotting eventually. Let's call these my "high maintenance" vegetables.

In the beginning of May, I'll start my low maintenance/direct seed vegetables (squash, beans, lettuce, carrots, whatever else strikes my fancy between now and then), but I don't direct seed much because I haven't had a lot of luck with direct seeding. I usually start them all indoors for 2-3 weeks. It helps me space out my garden better and helps me differentiate between weeds and vegetable plants in the beginning.

Here are some pictures of the soil blocks. I also keep them under a greenhouse to keep their humidity levels up. These types of seeds like warm and humid, so I oblige.

And lastly, my garden plan. Like I said above, it's just an idea. It'll probably change, but it lets me see how far apart everything should be planted and how many (approximately) I can fit.

Spring is almost here!

Correction: Spring is technically here! Summer is almost here!

Windowsill Looseleaf lettuce

It worked. It needs another few weeks and it's not much, but it's nice to know it's possible.

It's also almost time to start my spring seedlings. Remember last year I mentioned it's important to identify what to plant, how much, and when. Next post I will talk more about what I'm planting this year. The early plants are definitely tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. They need at least 8 weeks indoors and can't be planted out until the middle to end of May, so they're about ready to get started.