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!