Let the Planting Begin

I hope we are finished with the really cold weather now. The weather the past few days has been sunny and progressively warmer. Yesterday was warm and sunny and I spent the day transplanting broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprout seedlings (see first pic above). My lettuce is growing nicely with all of this mild weather. I have moved the plastic off of the hoop to keep the small plants from warming up too much (see second pic above). I harvested some of my top setting onions yesterday for green onions. I planted my peas about a week ago, but they have not germinated yet. If the weather stays warm, I might take apart my cold frame for the year. I have cucumbers and pepper plants still growing in the the cold frame. I cheated this year and bought some of my seedlings from a local nursery. I bought "Sweet Banana" pepper, "Hot Banana" pepper (I am trying this for the first time this year), and "Super Chili" pepper. I will be buying my "Roma" tomato seedlings soon. In about another 2 weeks it will be time to plant warm season seedlings (peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.) out into the garden.

Spring is Back - Time to Plant Onions and Lettuce

I made it through the last cold snap relatively unscathed. I did bring in my seedlings from the cold frame on several nights when I thought it might be too cold for them. I planted my onions slips yesterday and planted most of my lettuce seedlings today. I will be starting some more lettuce seeds within the next week or so. I am hopeful that the weather will stay more like "normal" now. The weather for about a week was more like mid winter than early spring. I will be planting my peas in another few days if it is not too wet and rainy. My broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprout plants are almost large enough to plant out into the garden. I am going to wait about another week to plant them. That is all for now. Get out there and enjoy your garden!!

Spring On Hold?

It looks like spring is going to be put on hold for about 5 days or so. Indianapolis has had 16 straight days with above normal temperatures, but the forecast is for very cold temps with lows in the lower 20's over the next few days. Luckily, I have not planted any of my seedlings as of yet. Most of my lettuce seedlings are big enough to plant out, but I have decided to wait out the cold weather and plant them when the temps moderate a bit by early next week. One thing we have had enough of is rain. My topsetting onions, the ones I planted last October, are growing like mad with all of this warm weather. Some are as tall as 8 inches (see first pic above). The second pic above is a picture of the seedlings in the cold frame. The seedlings on the right are lettuce. All of my seeds have now germinated except my tomatoes. I am not sure why they have not germinated, but I think I might have received bad seed. The seeds were delivered via mail on one of our very cold days in February and I think that might have affected them a bit. I should be receiving my other onion plants any day now. I think I am going to plant them despite the cold weather. I might cover them along with the topsetting onions with a row cover for added insurance. The third picture above is of an Eastern Red Bud tree in full bloom next to my garden. I have never seen this tree so loaded with flowers. I guess I might have only one more day to enjoy the blooms before the cold does them in.