Monday morning my little family went out and planted our vegetable garden. This might be the earliest I have ever planted my vegetables. Out in the community garden, many participants were getting their plants in. It was great motivation to work on my garden as well. I waited past one cold storm and then went for it. I’m glad I did with all the rain we’ve been having. I don’t have to worry about watering.

Most everything was planted through black plastic. On one garden, I had soaker hoses underneath (the other is stuck with lawn sprinklers). I love using this method: less wedding and higher yields in my experience.

All the transplants I planted I grew myself.  I was pleased with the results. They were better than some box store ones I’ve seen, but not as good as transplants from a good grower. I learned a lot from doing it as well.

One problem I had was forgetting to fertilize. I had used some slow release on the early tomatoes I seeded, but then forgot to fertilizer that other plants until their leaves were yellow. After some liquid fertilizer they did a lot better, but there was irreversible damage. When I worked at the greenhouse, we would fertigate about twice a week. It’s pretty easy to do that with a watering can and liquid fertilizer at home, if you remember. The slow release granulars also worked well when I put it on not too long after germination.

Next time, I think I will use two rows of florescent lights over a single shelf. The ones on the out edges were a lot smaller than the ones right under the light. When the weather warmed up, I just put them outside and forgot the less than ideal light situation.

I ended up with a lot of transplants. I over-planted them in the garden a bit (I do not need two zucchini plants), but still have more.  If you where a little less gung-ho than I was, by growing transplants at home you could do exactly what you wanted. Sometimes that’s impossible with store bought ones because they are often sold in four packs. But the good thing about over planting is they are fun to give away. By the way, if you live close I have extra pepper, tomatoes, and eggplant transplants I’m giving away.

The garden is in, the rain has come and I’m taking a break from gardening. But only until it stops raining, and then I can rectify the patchy spray job I did on the grass out front.

I planted tomatoes!!!! It was a very joyful experience. If you live around here you may be wondering: temperatures at night are still occasionally dipping below freezing. Tomatoes will freeze out in the garden and it’s not time to plant for at least another three weeks. But that’s if you are not being tricky. I used a common “trick” that enabled me to plant around four week early.

I grew my own transplants this year, and had several Roma plants ready for planting. I knew I seeded them a little early, but I was planning on doing some season extension. I used what are generally referred to as walls of water. It forms a mini-greenhouse around the plant and keeps them very well insulated from cold temperatures. They have been planted for a few days, and there’s no sign of any cold injury. (Of course, temperatures for those days haven’t gotten below freezing either, so the real test is yet to come.)

To plant them out, I first put down a layer of black plastic to warm the soil. Ideally, this should have been done several days before planting. (I just did it right before I planted, and so far it seems okay.) I cut holes in the black plastic and planted my tomato plants. I took off the bottom couple of leaves and buried the stem. (Very useful on the slightly leggy transplants.) The walls of water are filled with (surprise) water. I actually filled them with warm water: you could also leave them outside for a few days before planting. It should help in creating the warm conditions I want faster.

Now I can’t wait until my first harvest! Most of my seedlings are also coming up in the garden: the radish were first followed by lettuce and now peas. We planted leeks last week, and I’m planning on doing potatoes and onions this week. Great time of year right now.