Garden Planning and Starting Seeds

It's days like these sun-filled Michigan spring days that make me love living here. I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. The sun shows it's face and melts the snow.  And then something magical happens.  We see the first bud.  That first crocus.  Or daffodil.  Or Lily of the Valley (my favorite).  And then nature comes to life.

 

Every dog and their human is out on the street for that first warm day. Neighbors wave hello. Cars are cleaned of the winter salts. I love this time of year.

 

Spring means so many great things. This weekend brought warm enough temperatures here in Michigan to thaw out our garden beds. I couldn't wait any longer to get started on planning the garden! Seeds started indoors need to be transplanted around mid-May, or in about 8 weeks.  Which means that it's a perfect time to get started!

 

Last year was our first spring in the new house and my very first time starting my own garden from seeds I had sown myself.  Eating a pepper from the plant that I grew from a single seed brought so much joy and I can't wait to do that again! We learned a few lessons from our first garden... like how to plant what we actually eat (we don't need 12 cilantro plants), and protecting our garden from those beautiful deer (who completely destroyed my garden last year).

I will be starting my plants inside again this year, which proves to be much more economical than buying the plants later in the season.  This worked really well for us last year and every plant we grew was a success.  Until the deer discovered our ample garden...

We picked up this seed starting greenhouse at Lowe's for $8.  It came with 72 peet pellets, and a plastic greenhouse (which can be reused from year to year).  These greenhouses are really handy - only water and seeds need to be added! I already had a few seed packets on hand and we picked up a few more from Lowe's.

 

I poured 10 1/2 cups of warm water over each peet pellet in the tray.

 

 

It took about 5 minutes for the pellets to expand and absorb all the water.

 

Once all the water was absorbed we expanded the fabric mesh and loosened the peet soil with our fingers.

If you want to start seeds inside make sure you read the seed packets and do some research on what can be started indoors and what works best started directly in the ground.

Here's what we are sowing in the greenhouse:

• Mini Yellow Bell Peppers
• Mini Red Bell Peppers
• Heirloom Green Peppers
• Heirloom Yellow Pear Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• German Johnson Tomatoes
• Spearmint
• Basil
• Cilantro

We created a little divot in the soil and dropped in 3 seeds for each little pod, then covered the seeds loosely with the peet.  The idea here is that hopefully all three seeds will take, then once the seedlings start to grow strong leaves, we can cut back the two weakest stalks and let the strongest one grow. If each seed takes we will have 6-12 plants from our seed starters.

 

We laid the plastic lid in place and moved the greenhouse to the sunroom.  The east-facing sunroom is the warmest and brightest room in the house and the perfect spot for our little seeds. A grow light is often recommended to create even lighting so the stalks start out straight and strong.  However, we had luck with our Jiffy greenhouse last year in our sunroom. I just had to rotate it every few days to keep the sprouts growing straight upwards.  

 

I will let these grow for about 8 weeks in the starter tray, then (just after Mother's Day) they will be transplanted to our raised garden beds.  We built 3 of the raised beds last year.



In addition to our herbs, peppers and tomatoes we'll be sowing a few seeds directly into the soil.

The rest of our garden will be started in ground as soon as we can work the soil and the heaviest frosts are done (in the next 2 weeks).  Here's what seeds we'll sow directly in the garden beds:

• Kale
• Mesclun
• Spinach
• Radishes
• Heirloom Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Garden Beans
• Onions
• Shallots

We used a 4' temporary mesh fence last year to keep out the critters. The fence failed.  Our plan this year is to get rid of the grass around the beds, build a permanent fence, and find some creative (and organic) ways to keep Bambi and her family out. 

What are your favorite veggies to grow in the garden?

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