Room to Grow

I repotted some of the tomato seedlings today, and moved the Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye tomato to a 5 gallon pot. 

I'm still carrying the rest of the tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings in at night.  But the weather has definitely settled into Spring. Lots of pollen right now.

Tomatoes: All Sizes

My tomato seedlings are getting their first true leaves.

I bought a Black Prince (left) and a Cherokee Purple Tomato (right) from the online market and immediately re-potted them because they were in tiny 4 inch pots and around 18 inches tall.  Yikes!  I may have to cover them tomorrow night.  I added some of my Fiesta Gitana Calendula seedlings to their pots for companion plants.

I probably shouldn't buy anymore tomato plants. As it is, I'm probably going to need more pots.

I also re-potted my scented geraniums.

Eye of Potato

The potatoes are starting to sprout.  They are just starting to break the soil surface.  I was getting a little anxious, but they are right on time from planting day.

The squirrels keep digging around in my peas.  No damage yet, but I moved them to a different spot to maybe discourage them.

The first pepper seedling is up (a Goat Horn)!

Thin

I thinned the Black Cherry and Paul Robeson tomato seedlings this afternoon. Clipping all but one down per cell always makes me a little sad. What if I am not choosing the best seedling to live?  But there are plenty thriving now, so there should be many good ones to choose from when they are ready to re-home.

I did buy one Pink Berkeley Tie Dye tomato seedling that is several weeks farther along from Native Nurseries.  I believe their current tomato stock came from Holly Hill Farms.  There were many other varieties to choose from, including Stupice, Cosmonaut Volkov, Jaunne Flamme (I have my own seedlings coming up), etc.  I'm trying not to buy any others yet as I want to keep at least 2-3 of my own seedlings.

Also at Native Nurseries, I found another scented geranium in stock, Citrosa (it has a citrus/citronella scent. Internet sources claim it does not repel mosquitoes like a Citronella plant though.  I also found a Lemon Balm and a true Peppermint.  Later into spring, I'd still also like to get a Thai basil, Thai mint, parsley, Italian basil (whatever I can find), and chives.

The cauliflower seems to be bolting instead of producing a nice head.  It has been a short, warm winter.  It's supposed to rain a bit tomorrow, so later in the week, I'm hoping to cut down and clean out the broccoli and cauliflower.  There's actually a single, small broccoli plant in the raised bed that's trying to head, so I'll probably leave that alone for now.  I'll probably eat the small collards I've got this week, too. The cabbage is probably fine to leave to grow for now.  It's going to get a bit cooler again after the rain, but warm back up again next week.

The onions are the star of the garden. The new ones I planted recently are up and growing like crazy!  At least that's something.

Winter to Spring

The garden changes as winter changes to spring here in N. FL.  Here's a last look at some of the winter plants.

The cabbage is continuing to head.  Looks like I might get two decent cabbages before the winter's over.

The best cauliflower plant continues to develop. I'm keeping an eye on it to see if it needs the leaves tied around the head. The little white curds are now more apparent.

And moving into spring plants...

The onions are popping up.

The sugar snap peas are moving along.

And the seedlings are coming to life.  The Black Cherry tomatoes are doing well, and the Paul Robeson packs also have a few seedlings popping up.  The Calendula may need up-potting soon.  And I definitely need to re-pot the scented geranium.

No sign of the potatoes yet... I hope they haven't rotted.

Clouded

Cloudy and windy today = kept seedlings inside.  100% chance of rain tonight.  Tomorrow looks better.

The Paul Robeson and Black Cherry tomato seedlings are starting to pop up!  That's quite fast compared to last year.

I discovered Scented Geraniums, Pelargonium sp.  Unlike the geraniums I am used to, these have wonderfully scented leaves.  Native Nurseries had one variety in stock-- Old Fashioned Rose (probably Pelargonium graveolens), so I brought one home.  I think they will carry more as the weather warms.  They are tender perennials, so I need to keep it in a container I can carry inside in the winter.  They also like well-drained soil and less nutrients, so I'll have to find some appropriate soil to use when I transplant it.

More Seeds

The library offered seeds again this year, so I now have some Jaune Flamme tomatoes and Jimmy Nardello sweet peppers started.

The first of the onion starts has come up. The sugar snap peas are all up, but their leaves haven't unfurled yet. The calendula seeds I started are already sprouting. No sign of carrots or potatoes yet.

Sun Warmed

Well, at least it is easy to move this amount of seed starts around.

Seeds Sown

Seeds arrived, so I've started the following...

Purple Beauty Pepper (9) (saved seed from last year's crop)
Goat Horn Pepper (9)
Rosa Bianca Eggplant (9)
Paul Robeson Tomato (18)
Black Cherry Tomato (18)

I also started a few Calendula, though I am not sure they will take to transplanting.  I have plenty more seed to direct plant if needed.

Pacific Beauty Mix (9)
Fiesta Gitana (12)

I found some marigold seeds in my collection to direct sow after frost.  That with the zinnias should be most of what I need.  I'm sure I will at least get some pentas and petunias to transplant as the weather warms up. Maybe begonias again as well.

Hoping to get a couple of seed packs free from the library again this upcoming weekend.  I'm not sure yet exactly what they are offering.  I'm interested in more peppers and tomatoes (especially ones I have not tried), but who knows!

Potatoes, Carrots, Onions

The seed potatoes that I cut apart were cured, so I went ahead and planted all the potatoes today.  I bought three varieties from Native Nurseries this year (Red Pontiac, Red La Soda, Yukon Gold) and added two Bloem potato pots and a 5 gallon bucket with a split bottom to the Geopot potato grow sack from last year.

I also cleaned out the metal tub that the autumn carrots were growing in.  I got tons of carrots! The problem is that they are one-nibble carrots, so they will be dog snacks and a veggie stock ingredient.  I had a few larger carrots that I picked already, but I believe the largest was only 3-4 inches.

Being a glutton for punishment, I seeded that tub back with Nantes carrots for the spring (hopefully it's not too late)!  Back to the soil, I added some extra bone meal, organic fertilizer, and watered with some phosphorus fertilizer.  I'm obviously aiming for more root growth here.

I visited Gramling's for the first time, and they had onion starts (white, yellow, and red), so I planted a ring of those around the perimeter of the tub. That seems to help keep pests off the carrots, and they are nice companion plants.

I also planted about 16 onions in one of the square planters I had (lettuce was previously in it).

There's no sign of the sugar snap peas yet.  We had a lot of rain last week, but I'm hoping the sunshine this week encourages them to pop up.  It's going to get down to freezing again, but I think the new plantings will be safe.  We'll see.

I ordered some seeds from Baker Creek. Despite wanting to mainly use transplants, my desired plant varieties are rather specific.  I'm sure I will buy some transplants, but I did need direct seeding varieties as well, so I found myself buying a few tomatoes, the Goat Horn pepper I wanted to try, eggplant, and some companion flowers.  I need to get the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant started this week, and possibly some of the flowers.

Cauliflower

One of the cauliflower plants has started heading.

Peas

I planted the sugar snap peas in the new elevated planter (and a few in the raised bed and a few with the cauliflower in a metal tub... might as well test and play around).  I have one more planter like this that I will probably use for herbs. When the peas are done, I want to try growing cucumbers and let the vines hang down.