I have run out of windows and other spaces for indoor plants. I am juggling and rotating plants through locations to ensure that everybody gets enough light. In my tiny office, one shelf with grow lights is currently unused. Set up there are the seed starters – enough for a hundred seedlings. I am waiting until the end of January or the first week of February to make the call. Then, I’ll pull out the seed packets and start planting.
Start too early, and your plants will be spindly by the end of March. Start too late, and they won’t be the size you wish for planting out in the cold frames and hoop houses in early spring.
Yeah, I’m one of those who push spring as early as I can. But plants like kale, snow peas, broccoli, and lettuce can do well under the cover of a cold frame or in the protected environment provided by the spun fiber (Germany) placed over hoops.
If you have not seen a low hoop tunnel, it looks like a skinny tent over the plants. The spun fabric keeps in the sun’s warmth, protects from the wind, and covers against late snow.
I ran out of remay and space in my cold frames a few springs ago and turned clear plastic storage boxes upside down to make instant cold frames. Yes, I am a little crazy in early spring.
But being able to go wild in the garden in April requires that I start now.
Better this than looking forlornly out the window at dirty snow.
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Starting to get the planting fever myself. Just ordered some seeds, that I don’t really need, from a local wildflower grower…just can’t help myself. Far too early to start here, although, I have never used a cold frame. Maybe this will be the year to get those vegies out a little earlier!
Those clear plastic storage boxes make great and cheap coldframes. Just weight them down with some stones so they don’t blow away. Afterward you can just stack and store them.
Unfortunately using the boxes compounds the probelm of using palstics for everything!
I’ll look into it. Thanks!
My neighbors are already buying grow pots. 😀
The itch starts early.
Among those who feel it, I regard it as a kind of faith. I’m thinking of growing cabbage if I can find a good place for them
Cabbage’s are in the Brassica family, and there are more varieties available than people think, so you might be able to browse the available sorts of seeds.
I grew cabbage once — red cabbage — a long time ago in my first garden. I was amazed that such a beautiful thing came out of my yard. I prefer Swiss chard so I only grew cabbage once. This was in San Diego almost 40 years ago, though.