We are going to be busy for the next few days:  planting our vegetable seeds.  Tomorrow is the new moon, the best time to sow seeds.  We will be planting beet, cabbage, eggplant, leek, lettuce, kale, mustard, pepper, Swiss chard, spinach, and tomato seeds.  Cucumber and squash seeds will get planted next month.  They want really warm soil, so we leave them til later.  Just a note, Linda, I sow arugula directly into the ground, no transplanting involved.  Everything else gets a head start. 

 

I sow the seeds into flats, then put them in the basement on heat mats designed to maintain 70 degrees.  They will stay in the flats until the seedlings have two true leaves.  Then they get transplanted into their own little cell pack of soil.  That is when they move off the heat mats, and get placed under the grow lights.  

 

We do all our planting outside at the potting bench, so we pray for warmish weather.  Once the baby plants are planted they come back into the basement, where we can regulate light and temperature.

 

They will stay there until they are big enough to go out into the garden.  The tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers will stay in the basement until after the last frost date, which is May 15th here.  

 

Such an exciting time!!!

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!