What’s cookin’ in the garden preseason?

Plants

Last year I gave seed-starting a try and it was surprisingly easy and satisfying. I’m planning to set up most of my garden starting from seeds this year.

I have taken over my guest bathroom shower tub to create a plant nursery. I set up wire rack shelves, attached grow lights on a timer, and have a self-watering seed tray that is really convenient and effective for germinating seeds. Keeping seeds warm and moist is key. The bathroom is first on my heat run so it is always the warmest room. I used the insulted bags from my food kit delivery boxes to reflect light back and keep warmth in. Seeds seems to like it.

I use coconut coir bricks, reconstituted with water, as my seed starting medium. Mostly this is because buying something the size of a yoga brick and adding water is much more convenient than buying bags of soil when you’re working in a small space. In fact I also found potting soil in a compressed brick that I’ve been adding water to, and the space savings are great.

Seeds started this week:

• Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Squash (Honeynut, butternut, zucchini)
• Peppers

The test plants

I started several plants in January out of shear boredom and some of them are going strong! My zuchini plants appear to want to bear fruit, butternut is starting to blossom, and I have an assortment of herbs in various states of maturity. I’ve had to move the squash out of the nursery to make room for new seedlings, at this point whether they survive to bear fruit in my east-facing window is an experiment. Highlights:

Making the bed

First monthly garden work day! We got our allotments of compost and distributed them to the plots. I met some plot neighbors and enjoyed some free coffee and snacks.

I’m getting eager to work, but have to keep in mind that the garden will not have water for at least another month. The beds looks pretty much the same plus a few piles of compost.

The plan

So far I have a rough plan to do squash, cucumber, tomato, and peppers in the north bed, and beets, carrots, onions in the south bed. That’s about as far as the planning has gone. Peas, beans, and flowers may go somewhere. Also lettuce / spinach.