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I have been busy over the last couple of months, starting seeds and preparing for my garden. I have big plans this year. In North Idaho, the weather is always changing and although the sun is out and it is beautiful today, we have a late frost date and if you get over excited and put your plants out too early they will freeze. So my kitchen became a little nursery for my first starts. I have now expanded to a table in the living room and the kitchen and I am running out of space.
I am tying some new things this year, like artichokes. I had assumed that I would not be able to grow them here as they don’t survive a freeze and I always thought they didn’t produce until the second year. Recently, I read that you can get a decent harvest in the first year growing them as annuals, so for the price of a bag of seeds I am giving it a try.
I am also growing a ton of peppers, sweet peppers and a variety of hot peppers. My son wants to try making hot sauce and I want spicy ones for salsa and the sweet ones for salads. We probably have way too many plants but we just needed to try all the different kinds. They have a bit of a longer growing season to produce so getting them started indoors will give me a head start and hopefully we will get a decent crop before the first frost in the fall.
I have started onions, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage in addition to the some new things I haven’t tried growing before. I variety of heirloom seeds for Christmas so there are some things in there that I am trying because I have the seeds. I am starting okra, rhubarb and eggplant. These are trial items that we will see if we like, we may have some interesting food to give away.
Tomatoes. I am starting so many tomatoes. I did not have enough last year so I am growing more. I also did not have the variety I wanted last year so I am trying a bunch of new kinds. We will see how they do and which ones my family likes best. Last year we made some amazing sauce and a green salsa with all the ones I had to pick at the end of the season. My goal this year is to make both red and green salsa as well as the sauce.
I got these great little seed starter containers. They are like a mini greenhouse. I really like the fact that they have a removeable top, and for the first couple of days I can even stack them. I have some similar seed starting containers last year but I found that it was really hard to remove the small plants when it was time to transplant. These are much easier to work with, they are a bit sturdier and it is easy to get the seedlings out of.
This is fabulous, Gretchen! I can’t wait to see how all your fruits and veggies grow! Awesome website too!
I have artichokes started this year too. I also have heirloom tomatoes and San Marzano paste tomatoes, sweet peppers, corcel hot peppers, Utah celery, tomatillos, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, kale, calendula and corn started inside and peas and radishes outside. Those starters are pretty cool! I have some things in cells and lots in solo cups inside trays and under lights. I’m going to try to be good about starting things inside through Spring and into Summer to transplant into the beds as other things are being harvested. Last year, I took too long to decide if I should pull the peas and they got mildew. I really didn’t get enough harvest late to make it worth the mess.