Spring Garden Update

Here’s how the weather is lately:

I think it’s Spring…
I think it’s Spring…
I think it’s Spring..

Ok totally not Spring. On Thursday it was freezing out, I was shivering while walking to the store! The sunshine is pretty mean to tease me with it’s rays and hopes of garden green while throwing miserable coldness to freeze off my ears.

Example of Not Spring, me in layers.  What part of my body always is the coldest?  My thighs freeze first, but that’s a whole other story.

But there’s hope at the end of the Winter rainbow, do you see Spring? Do you see it? Look for the green grass, the bushy vegetables, look for me waving my arms at you!

 And even more Spring hope? Taking a walk to the other side of our loft to check out our seedlings.

All of our seeds have come up, there’s a quiet a variety of veggies happening here.

Matthew always gets most excited for the onions.  I’m always stuck taking these onions apart which is a timely process but I do it out of love for the onions.. and Matthew.

And there’s the beloved broccoli and cauliflower, two of my favorite vegetables to grow (don’t tell the others).  I am craving fresh broccoli from the roof, so the time where I can cut it and throw it right in my basket cannot come soon enough!

Want to see how little they were just 3 weeks ago? I love seeing them grow!

And the kale? It’s totally ready.  Kale is always ready.

Some of you guy have commented that you don’t grow from seeds and you just buy the plant at your local nursery, but if you really want to save money (think about it: 1 tomato plant: $4.00, one pack of tomato seeds that last you multiple years and can grow you 50 plants: $2.00) you should try to grow from seeds.  Besides the economical value, you will feel like a total garden mother (or father) when you see these seedlings pop through your potting mix.  And when they grow big and strong and you cut them off the plant and eat them for dinner, you will feel totally awesome and totally horrible because you just ate your child. Oh, the circle of life.

Tips for growing from seeds:

Plan!  Read the back of the seed packet to figure out your calendar you definitely need to plan ahead of time.  It always feels silly for us to start seedlings in January when it’s snowing, but once you do it a few times you’ll have your calendar dates ready to go every single year.

We use a quality potting mix.   Our entire garden is almost completely container based so knowing that you need to use potting mix for containers, you need to start your seedlings out the same way.  That way when you transplant the seedling from indoors to your big container (to get big and strong!) the potting mix already matches.   You want to make sure your potting mix is also environmentally safe as you will be digesting these veggies, so a potting mix like this is great for herbs and vegetables to grow.

Afraid of over watering?  Then get a self watering seedling kit (they are sold at your local garden/home store right near the potting mix and seeds).  This kit will help keep the right amount of moisture so you water just right.

Adjust your growing lights as the seedlings begin to get taller.  When they’re starting out your light will be fairly close to them, but as they grow, you will have to raise the light.  Don’t raise the light too tall as you don’t want your seedlings to get leggy and be begging for light.

Want to get your seedlings ready for the wind?  Put a fan on them.  This will get them prepped for the windy weather (especially like we get on the roof!)

What’s next?

If you’re keeping up to date with my Seed Calendar you’ll see that we have some upcoming dates:
Sugar Snap Peas will be planted directly into the garden soon.
Tomatoes and Pepper seeds will be planted inside in a few weeks.

And then after that we really start to move outside with transplanting. With the cold weather we’ve been having this year it appears all the dates will be moved back a week or two.

Also, I’ve been busy organizing the recipe section on Brooklyn Farm Girl and made a new section specifically for Garden recipes.  Anything I make with our garden harvest is featured here, from pumpkins to strawberries to spinach and of course plenty of tomato sauce recipes.

First thing I’m going to make with our garden broccoli after throwing in many pieces straight into my mouth?  My Chinese Takeout Chicken and Broccoli has become a BFG reader favorite so I’m happy to see so many of you have tried and loved it!