Our 2023 garden has officially started. Yesterday with Chatter’s help I planted cabbage and pepper seedlings. I might be jumping the gun by a couple of weeks on the peppers but it will soon be time for planting cabbage out in the garden.
For many years we started our peppers in the green house and while they did grow, they were awfully slow about it.
The green house isn’t heated and this time of the year the sun barely touches it as it makes its way across the sky.
The peppers we started out there were usually started just before the tomatoes in late February or early March. They barely grew big enough to plant by the time warm weather arrived which meant they didn’t produce for us until the end of the summer.
Last year was the best year we had for peppers, or I should say the earliest we had peppers ready to eat in the garden.
I had used grow lights inside before in an attempt to start peppers and cabbage but it never worked out somehow. Last year I purchased a shelving unit that has grow lights inside it as well as a plastic cover that encloses the unit to keep in the warmth. I also used heat mats to aid in germinating the seeds. It worked so well!
After the peppers grew a little I put them in larger pots and let them keep growing. Eventually I moved them out to the green house with the tomatoes and by the time warm weather arrived they were good size plants—which resulted in peppers coming in much earlier in the season.
The only downside to the shelving unit is the spacing of the shelves. You might be able to find one with better spacing or adjustable shelves. I use boxes to lift the plants closer to the grow lights and lower them as needed.
I’m excited to have started this year’s garden. As fast as time flies before I know it I’ll be harvesting peppers and cabbage.
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My cabbage, broccoli and onions are up! I plant mine in small cells, put them on top of my freezer where it is warm bottom heat. and then transplant them to larger cups when the have 2 true leaves. Variegated cabbages were transplanted last weekend and the broccoli and flat and round Dutch seedlings are in dire need of transplanting. It’s dark when I get off work so they are going to have until weekend.
Well, as I live in town and have absolutely no garden spot–I am going to buy a couple of tomato plants at least and try to raise them.
A few years ago, I did have a small garden spot that had a few tomatoes and peppers. People walk through my yard going through to a flash market that is catty corner to my house–I came out one day and there was a lady with a plastic sack picking my garden –I know she made tamales in town and sold them, so I figure some of the green sauce she made came from my garden. (No, I didn’t say anything)
Where did you get your shelving unit?
M’liss I got it here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08J44ZV24/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 🙂
Don’t you just love the first seeds planted with the promise of spring?
I don’t do veggies, but I do have a flower garden. I planted my sweetpeas & cup & saucer vine a couple of weeks ago. The snowdrops & daffodils are peeking through.
I love all seasons, but still get excited at the signs of change.
Here in northern West Virginia planting is much later in the spring. We are expecting snow the next two days here and it’s just getting started in our area.
My dad was a farmer and I remember when he did get his peppers planted in the garden he would water them with a mixture of water and epsom salts. His plants were always hardy and his peppers were always nice and big.
I started 2 weeks ago. Of course I’m on the Gulf Coast so I should be good. Started a bunch of seeds. Everything is looking good so far!
A garden is my happy place. One year I worked myself to death carrying plants out on the porch to harden then back in with makeshift lighting. The garden thrived. Peppers always confound me, and I am much too impatient waiting on them. I never have done well waiting for the green ones to turn red or yellow. Seems they are just really getting wound up when it’s time for frost. I spent a lot of time just experimenting when I had a huge garden. A couple of years I planted pepper plants at different locations all over my garden. They are sturdy and will stand all winter. I would clear the garden of everything except the pepper plants, sometimes even covering them if a light frost. I would then rake all the leaves into the garden and with rain and the pepper plants trapping the leaves they mostly remained all winter. Then spring they were plowed in. A lot of work, and a plumb crazy idea, but it seemed to work very well keeping down weeds and mulching the garden with added nutrients from leaves. Before plowing it was easy to run through and easily pull up the scraggly pepper plants.
I have the Malabar spinach seeds you mentioned prior, and plan on planting come spring. Google said can climb 20 feet high. Love your posts on the garden.
Oh Tipper, I envy your warmer climate, at least in the winter, lol. In the heat of the summer, not so much because I just wilt. It’s still a bit early for me to start seeds. My husband likes to start the tomatoes the middle of February which in my opinion is way too early as we have our last frost usually in the last week of May. But I just go along, lol. I do like to start my peppers, they take so long to germinate. A couple of years ago I bought a heavy duty silver bakers type rack from the Home Despot and then some reasonably priced led grow lights from amazon and I have two to a shelf. I have small chain to hang them and with S hooks I can move them closer or farther from the plants as they grow. But those crazy tomatoes, being planted in February end up huge and I have to set them on a piece of plywood on saw horses in the shop before they end up outside. I agree the heat mats are great, they are a game changer. We’re supposed to get snow Friday and Saturday and then next week the temps drop back into the single digits, so other than reading and watching gardening stuff on the internet, I’m trying to ignore the garden call. I have a huge double Irish chain quilt to get quilted for my grandson and we just found out we’re having our first great grand baby the end of May, so I have got to get a quilt done for her. Blessings from my glacier () in Idaho.
As I’m looking at the snow outside my windows and expected a load more tomorrow, I read your post and dream. Of course, even if we did get enough sun, we’d have to wait until after May 15 to put anything in the ground. That’s the last “frost date.” I really don’t know how farmers up here manage. I sure know we all flock to the farmers’ markets all summer long because getting good, home-grown produce is such a short season. So, dear Tipper and friends, I live vicariously through your posts, dream, and remember.
Have you ever tried a cold frame? I’ve seen it done but have never tried it. Dusty replaced his storm door and brought me the old one. I took out the glass and am planning to use that as the lid.
You build a frame of wood and put it in a sunny spot preferably up next to the house. You get a piece of glass or hard plastic to cover it. When the weather is sunny you put your plants from inside in it where they can get exposure to sunlight and more air circulation. You raise and lower the lid depending on how warm it is and on how hard the wind is blowing. Your plants will learn to follow the sun instead of growing toward one fixed light source. They will also grow resistant to the wind.
Some of your hardy plants like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower might even be started in a cold frame. Onions too. Just an idea!
All this scheme of mine hangs on my thumbs. Without their cooperation I am dead in the water. The best laid plans of mice and men………….! I hope the mice do better!
Ed-I’ve never tried one but would love to 🙂
I love looking forward to spring! Tipper, picture this. You are outside building a snowman while your peppers and cabbage are coming to life inside!! I do hope you get a big snow this season but it’s exciting to be in the beginnings of spring gardening also!!! Can’t wait to see them grow!!
Where I live, there will be no seed starting for months. We can’t actually get anything (other than lettuces & potatoes) in the ground until after Memorial Day weekend. I would love a greenhouse. I have the urge to get out way before I can actually do anything in the garden. Instead, I tap trees for maple syrup in Feb/March/April ish. Oh, & it will be time to start incubating eggs & ordering my meat birds. That is when I know spring is on the way, but I have a ways to go….. For now, I am occupying myself with knitting & quilting.
Setting mine up today – it gives me happy energy just to see the trays under lights.
It seems a little early for me. The temp. was 19 when I got up this AM. I start in the house in late Feb., move them to the basement windows after they germinate and then outside about late April.
That’s exciting Tipper! I got so excited when the end of January came so I could get my seeds started. I loved it when the plants sprouted. It just amazed me how God created everything so all things would grow. We had so many soil issues last year we decided not to plant a ground garden. My husband decided he is going to just plant a few plants in our tubs. I’ve always been the gardener between us so I’m going to see how he does. I don’t know if I’ll hold out because seeing so many on YouTube starting their seeds is giving me the gardeners itch…lol…
I can see you could like growing vegetable plants to sell. I think I could to but it would be hard to compete with Bonnie Farms. They seem to be everywhere now. I grew veg seedlings one time in the crawl space using a grow light and a homemade heating pad arrangement. Worked almost too well because the plants got too big and it was too early to outplant. Like you, my thoughts are turning toward gardening again.
Tipper, your grow unit is on par with all the ones I’ve looked at. The heated mats is a good idea too! It may be early, but I used to always hear THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM! Give yourself a round of applause because (I’m no master gardener) but it looks like youre well on your way to me. I have purchased a 10 by 7 collapsible model greenhouse and I’m hoping it will do the job. I am ready to set up a deer perimeter and go to battle with those adorable tenderloins. Lol It’s going to be a sun Joe electric tiller too which will serve me fine. I’m no athlete muscular woman at 55 so the sun Joe will do the trick til my 20 mule team arrives…. I do remember the tractor man, as a kid, coming in March or April to do a big til and then he came back later for a fine til. I’d run up and down those humps of hard dirt and found it to be great fun!!! I find myself thinking more about being a child and how it felt than I’ve ever thought in my life about it. What on earth will we do when it all goes right?
Haven’t started any seeds yet myself, but we have put some manure and some mulched-up leaves on the garden, and I have a source for some good composted manure now. Can’t wait to get my hands in the dirt again! Good luck with your peppers!
I have good results using winter sowing, especially with tomatoes which always developed wilting and legginess when I tried starting them indoors. Looks like an excellent setup!
Reading your post is giving me the encouragement I need for Spring. We are preparing for a snowstorm and under a Winter Storm Warning of up to 8 or 9 inches of snow coming overnight and tomorrow. Thank you for your daily dose of sunshine!
So envy those with space to start seedlings. To me, going through a couple seed catalogs is like going through a wishbook. Heating mats, lights and seeds I’ve always wanted to try.
Happy Growing!
Well, our weather is too slippery right now with all this rain and we don’t have a grow house. if i can find someone with empty milk jugs I thought I’d try that this year.
God bless your garden this year with an abundance of fruit for your labor.
The shelving unit I have for starting plants was bought years ago from one of the big box stores. The lights are regular T8 shop lights, hung from the shelves above with chains and s-hooks so that the lights can be raised and lowered as needed to keep the lights about 3″ above the plants.. You can get two lights over each shelf, maybe three as your unit looks wider than mine. It works like a charm!
Love reading about your doin’s every morning!
Chris
in Cow Pie County, GA 🙂
Great job Tipper! I use this method to grow flats and flats of vegetables and flowers every year. I start my seeds a little later so around the first of March my sunroom looks and smells like a jungle.
Good luck!
Dena
I always look forward to early spring time. There’s something wonderful about growing your own food. It connects us to the land in a way that nothing else can.
The thought of peppers and cabbage is exciting! I am ready for spring to start slipping into our days!
Yay, how exciting for you! Even more exciting is that fact that we are forecasted to wake up to 4-7 inches of snow tomorrow morning!!! A heavy, snowman building, snow to boot! Keep your fingers crossed!
Gosh already? It is 38 this morning in upstate Florida, but it won’t be long and I will be doing the same thing. Thinkin’ about a grow lite myself, but as always…space space space. Guess it will be spring cleaning time soon and time to ‘thrift store giving stuff’. Have a wonderful week, January is almost in the record book. God Bless