Posts Tagged ‘peppers’
Planting Time?
Planting time can sneak up on you. If you simply look out the window and wait until you see robins pulling up worms and see some daffodils to plant your garden you can miss a lot of the fun – and cost savings – of planting inside.
It’s not at all early to begin planting, depending on where you are and what you are planting. Indoor planting can begin right now for things like peppers which are slow to get started. Tomatoes could be planted at the same time but usually a little later. I like to plant some marigolds so they’re almost ready to bloom when I put them in the ground.
I’ve come upon a pretty handy and quite reliable source that serves as a good reminder of what to plant when. This is the 2010 Best Planting Dates for Seeds from the Old Farmer’s Almanac. All you need to do is to fill in your town or zip code and information based on average last frost date is there for most things you might wish to plant. There is even a separate date listed as “Moon-favorable Dates.” Having lived on the ocean I am aware of the power of the moon to change tides so I guess it could have some effect on plants. I haven’t paid much attention to this myself.
So what are you planting? Just shoot me a comment (below) and let me know. Should I experiment with comparing “Moon-favorable Dates” plantings with regular dates?
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Just a little update on this post…
“Pogo,” one of the knowledgeable people on the Organic Gardening forum reacted wisely to my mention of the Best Planting Dates for Seeds information. She said, “…All these predictors are based on probability. Generally it isn’t a date, but a range with a certain probability of freezing or not. I like this map (from NOAA) because it gives the probability of both frost (32) and freeze (28). How far you push the dates just depends on how much risk you want to take.”
Even in a very small area that date can be different depending on if you are on the north side of a mountain or the south side; if you are right on the shore or on a nearby rise overlooking that same spot. The date for a valley can be different than the date for the adjoining two rises.
Your own records for YOUR location are the best yet not perfect when it comes to determining the date of the last frost for you.
New Light for an Old Darkroom
It’s a little difficult to picture a garden in the same place where all I’ve seen is snow since December. But daylight is a little longer now and the brutal sub-zero temperatures seem to have gone. The picture changes slowly.
This is the time of year that I like to prepare for the growing season ahead. It’s almost time for indoor planting and that requires some preparation. This year I’m installing a 48″ florescent light in my old darkroom (oh, the irony) to get my tomatoes and peppers excited about life.
I’ve also made a “map” of what will go where in the garden. It wasn’t easy finding full sun for almost everything I plan to grow. If you throw in the rotation factor (trying not to plant things in the same place in successive years) and complementarity (planting vegetables that do well together) it’s a puzzle that would make Will Shortz proud.
I just noticed that my work desktop (non computer) seems to belie my commitment to photography right now. The photo below tells where my heart is. I photographed this exactly as I found it.
More planning, pulling out saved seeds from last year… and how am I going to install that light?
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More from Brooklyn
It seems that peppers are about the last things to ripen. Jesse sent this yesterday……..
here’s a shot of my (habañero) peppers coming along. just waiting for them to turn….. i can’t remember what color i planted. orange i believe.
peppers
Mistakes made, but plodding on…
I have already made mention of a few blunders. It’s time to “fess up”. Either a math error or impatience caused me to plant some things a little early. My tomatoes, peppers, and broccoli plants are a little huge and I can’t put them in the ground for at least another four weeks! My “little shop of horrors” plants will spend the next month alternating between sitting in my driveway “hardening off” and keeping from freezing inside my studio. I hope they don’t frighten my clients.
I may have started a little early!