Let the seeding begin!

(I'm starting a new blog called "The Backyard Bounty" that will eventually replace Living in Season simply because I can't drop the "Typepad" addition in the web address. There's already a .com out there, and it's nothing like what I do. So, I will double up posts to some degree until I make the final change.)

Tuesday Sam and I seeded a container of celery, two of 'Copra' onions, one 'Goliath' sweet pepper and one 'Goliath Griller' Anaheim type pepper…. oh, and another of buttercrunch lettuce because I killed the ones I started at the beginning of the month. (I put them in the greenhouse during a nice day last week, and the door froze shut by evening. They spent the night in the cold, and didn't pull though.) It's a little earlier than normal, but I'm striving to have plants set out earlier this spring than last year. Lord willing, we won't have sub zero temps at the end of April or a couple of feet of snow. I'm ready for  "normal" spring with a final frost date of May 15 and no more freak storms.

I have a lot of people ask me when to start their seeds in the house, and my best piece of advice is to pull out the calendar and grab your seed packets. Most of them (with a few exceptions) will tell you how many weeks before setting them outside you should start them. For example, tomatoes typically recommend 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost date. However, since I'll set many of mine out in late April or early May, I need to have at least some of them planted in early March.

On the other hand, there are a number of fast growing plants that shouldn't be started too far ahead of the game. Squash are one of them. I have a friend… actually two of them… who started them way to early. By the time comes to set them out, you have gangly plants on your hands. They can survive, but since they can be fussy about transplanting as it is, it's better to have a stocky, sturdy plant.

Below is a sample of Sam and I planting a few peppers yesterday. We're still working on the technical aspect of it, but hope to be able to demonstrate a number of gardening methods throughout the season.