garden planning journal, 2019

January is the best time to buy seeds because they're on sale and nothing's sold out. However, I'm usually recovering from holidays, especially now that school holidays drag on a week into the next year.

February is spent recovering from January.

March, on the other hand, brings promise of green things, like the first day of Spring!  It's the perfect time to get things going in the garden, if I haven't already.  A few weeks ago, my friend Patty off-handedly mentioned planting potatoes and sweet peas on St. Patrick's Day.  This year, I'm trying sweet peas after seeing the love for them on Floret.

My youngest kid helped me start indoor seeds for four kinds of peppers, lavender plants, and cucumbers, pictured.  (I don't know what made me think I should start cucumbers inside.)  After finding the Grow as I Grow video series by Gary Pilarchik, it seems practically fail proof - ha ha - to start seeds indoors!  Here's what I've accomplished in the past three weeks. 

-- After scouring the internet and every local option, I purchased a 4-bulb florescent grow light, used, with new T5 bulbs.  The local nurseries did not have their supplies yet.  Apparently the hardware stores are half-heartedly committed to switching to LEDs in the fixture department, not in the bulb aisle.  I ended up getting mine from a what is essentially a shop for people growing pot, but it was my last resort, and apparently the ones on top of the industry.  They also had some holes in their inventory but spied this used "floor model" on a shelf and offered to clean it up and replace the bulbs.  I asked the pot guys about LEDs, and they said the general consensus is that the difference in heat and energy use is not significant enough for the huge increase in price.  I also got a timer so I don't have to recalculate every day that I forget to turn them on early.  All in, I spent about $120. 

-- A few weeks earlier, I ordered seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, also known as Rare Seeds.  I ordered all my peppers, which Gary says you can start super early - 12 weeks out, and lavender, same; specifically, hot peppers Anaheim and Brazilian Starfish, and sweet peppers Jimmy Nardello and Marconi, both red Italian peppers.  The lavender is basic herb variety, and the cucumbers are Munchers that are left from last year.

-- I also happened to visit a local nursery just as someone from Botanical Interests was starting a presentation on seed-starting, so hopefully I picked up a little knowledge from that. More interesting was hearing about the illustrations and how they are updated from time to time, and what happens to original prints.

-- On the sporadic sunny days, I've done some pruning, and evaluating.

-- Today, I am testing the pH in my garden beds because we had some issues last year, although they appear to be identical and I'm wondering if the testing device is actually working.

-- Also today, I am starting some sweet peas indoors like they do at Floret, and also starting them outside as Patty suggested.  I'm also planting edible snap peas.

-- This week, I am planning to do some paint touch-up and minor repairs on the shed before anything's growing in front of the walls.

Well back to my pH experiment.  Are you getting ready for spring gardening?  What's getting planted?