I just wanted to mention a few things about starting your seeds outdoors in the garden this early.
As I have mentioned before, if you have hoop houses you can start your seeds outside this early. Especially with this nice weather we are having!
There is something to keep in mind though – Most seeds need temperatures in the 60’s to 80’s to germinate. If you have plastic over your hoop houses and it is reasonably air-tight you can expect to reach that if the outside temperature is in the 50’s and the sun is shining on your houses. In fact, it might get much hotter than that in there!
If your outside temps are not quite that high yet, I would suggest germinating indoors and then transplanting as soon as the plants get their second leaves. (You could transplant them as soon as they are up, but if you wait a little bit you might have a better survival rate.)
Once the seedlings have germinated and are green above ground you need to really watch that temperature and make sure it doesn’t get too hot and fry your newly germinated seeds!
So – Keep your hoop house warm/hot until the seeds germinate and then just keep it above freezing. Most plants do well in the 45-55 degree range.
I suggest getting a thermometer and watching that temp. You can record and compare the inside temp with the outside temp, and if it is sunny or not and you will have a good idea what temp it is without having to actually check. I keep the front and back of my houses down with bricks so I can remove them and roll the plastic back to vent on hot days. I have the sides stapled down so they are somewhat air-tight.
I recently bought a remote thermometer which I have not set up yet, but I am excited to use it. It has a temperature/weather station you keep inside, it also monitors the low and high and records it for 7 days! It also has a probe which I intend to place outside, then I will get an outside and an inside reading and I can see what’s going on in there without ever having to go outside!
Thanks for stopping by!
Ever wonder what to do about insect pests besides spray them to death?
Ladybugs and Praying Mantises eat several times their own weight in garden pests in one day!
Imagine having a really great pest control in your garden and never having to spray a single pesticide!
Here’s a list of what they love to feast on:
Ladybugs
- aphids
- whitefly
- spidermites
- mealybugs
Praying Mantis
- aphids
- beetles
- grasshoppers
- caterpillars
- moths
- mosquitos
- other insects
This company: http://www.gardeners.com/1500-Adult-Ladybugs/BackyardHabitat_Cat,05-239RS,default,cp.html will send you 1,500 adult ladybugs or 200-300 Praying Mantis eggs.
I plan to order some for May/June when we get lots of aphids and for the past two years I’ve had the dreaded Japanese Beetle. (I did put down milky spore last year twice, but that can take a few years to build up and take effect.)
Another wonderful way to protect vegetation from harmful pests is with coverings. Here is a great, affordable, garden fabric that can be used in the summer to cover crops and prevent them from damage. This works very well with beetles, but may or may not work so great with aphids. Here’s a link to purchase: http://www.gardeners.com/Summerweight-Garden-Fabric/GardenPests_Insects,11749,default,cp.html
My plans to start some tomato seeds in February did not turn out. 🙂 I now have them all started! Here is a list of everything that went into pots and seedling planters tonight:
- 4 Different Kinds of Tomatoes
- Green Peppers
- Jalapeno Peppers
- Peas (normally right in the ground, but starting just to see.)
- Zucchini
- Eggplant
- Sunflowers
- Sweet Corn
I am excited to be getting the season started! I love this time of year. I feel like everything is laid out for me and I am no longer burnt out from weeding and cleaning out the beds!
I am going to plant outside this week as well. Outdoor night time temperatures are now staying above freezing! I know that in Minnesota that could change very quickly but those hoop-houses really stay warm with the plastic on, so I am going to give it a shot.
In the hoop-houses I will be planting:
- Radishes
- Spinach
- Arugula
- Cabbage
- Onions (these are in I am just going to cover them so they can start up!)
- Carrots (same as onions, although I am going to plant another bed of carrots as well.)
If the weather really does stay warm we will have enough salad greens to make a nice salad by May1st! (Now I need to look back at my posts and see when my first harvest was last year.)
I have another exciting announcement – I will be starting to go “expert” gardener interviews and posting them on the site! I always spot totally awesome gardens and greenhouses around town as I am driving. I hope to have many home gardener videos and stories up on the site very soon!!
Thanks for stopping by!
Ladies and Gentlemen, START YOUR SEEDS!
Imagine planting seeds in the ground in March and having a harvest of cold weather veggies by Easter! If you have hoop houses it is worth a shot!
I live in Minnesota, so I am just now getting things ready to start my seedlings for planting in May and June. However, our weather forecast is saying that by the end of the week we will be in the 50’s with over night temps above freezing! This is a lot like the weather we had all through November last fall. Every year the sun in March is as strong as it is in October, we usually just have a lot of snow pack which keeps things cold until that all melts in April. Normally the *end* of April. Not so this year! (We are in a major drought so let’s see what this summer is like after hardly any snow this winter!)
So, all you folks who know that I had salad greens and cold weather veggies alive and well into November can guess what I am going to be planting now. I have gotten my hoop houses ready for planting. And I am going to use my new remote thermometer to measure the temps (it actually records them!) over night and during the day.
I first used the hoop house/raised beds last spring and had salad greens and radishes very early in the season! In fact, the first day they were all ready and I did my transplants I nearly burnt everything to a crisp! It got to be over 100 degrees in the houses and the outside temp was 45 or something! Overnight temps were not quite above freezing but that did not matter.
So, if you have hoops, or if you were thinking of building some, now is the time!
This week I will be planting:
- Radishes
- Spinach
- Cabbage
- Other Misc Salad Greens
I am also going to check out my onion bed and see how it’s doing. Cover it and see if I can get them to start growing sooner this season. I am also creating/building another onion bed farther in the sun light and see if that makes them plump up faster. I have large yellow onions and I haven’t been able to get them larger than a racket ball yet. 🙂
So! Start your seeds
Please come on back and share your stories and comments below or in our forum. (A lot of my friends email me directly after reading an article here, but it would help me a lot if you posted a comment directly on the site somewhere and I will answer it here and send you an email as well!)
Thank you!
