2009-04-03 (Last Freeze -4 Weeks) Quick Update

We have celery sprouts! They came up a couple of days ago. Since the seeds are so small, I planted a pinch in each pot and I'm getting four or more plants coming up in each one. Here's a picture of everything as of yesterday:



The cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage are in the pots on the left side. On the right, front to back: six types of lettuce; four types of tomatoes, celery and some new bell peppers (the peppers have been really slow to germinate, so I planted another ten bell peppers last week, just in case); swiss chard and five types of peppers; and three types of onions in the back, some in vermiculite and some in the peat pots. I plan on potting up the peppers and tomatoes this weekend.

I need to start putting the broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce and onions outside to get them hardened off. It has been cold and rainy since last night, so I'm not sure that will work today. More snow is possible through tomorrow morning, then it's supposed to make it into the 60s next week (finally!).

Last week I finished a couple of boxes and got peas and spinach planted, eight peas per square foot and nine spinach. I had to chop through half an inch of frozen soil to plant them, but they like the colder weather, right? We'll see how they do. Plenty of natural watering going on.

Also, time to start pumpkins indoors. Since these are big seeds, I'm going to plant directly in 4-inch pots. I'm doing some pie pumpkins as well as some bigger ones for Halloween. The kids are going to plant another type to see who can grow the biggest one.