It’s seed-sowing time! It’s something that I look forward for the summer, I love to see a small kitchen garden in my backyard, harvest it and feed my family and froze some up for the winter. I just got a year of experience doing it, and of course I am not a professional but I loved how healthy and happy I was both mentally and physically during those days. And all I am sharing is my experience and the notes on how it worked out for me! Please read along especially if you’re a beginner to summer vegetable garden.
Start Seeds Indoors
There are some benefits to sowing seeds indoors:\
- It gives you a head start on the growing season especially in Canada, which can lead to more fruitful harvests as we don’t have enough growing days for some plants to get to harvest if they’re started outside.\
- It’s actually necessary for a number of plants, especially for some of the Warm season vegetables—such as tomatoes, peppers, snake guard, bitter guard and eggplant. They can’t be planted too early outdoors in the spring, as the soil is too cool to kill them. Starting seeds indoors allows you to gain a few precious weeks of growing time, which can really make a difference.\
- If you don’t have time to seed indoors, don’t worry, you can get to buy young plants called “transplants” or “starts” at the garden store or nursery. While some nursery starter plants are grown nicely, others may be of poor quality and don’t thrive once they’re home.
4. But I prefer to plant my own seeds, as you tend to have healthier starts, since you can care for them from day one.\ - Finally, seeds are much less expensive than buying plants at the garden store (who doesn’t love to save some money :) )
It’s not just warm-season vegetables that can be started from seed. Many vegetables—such as carrots and radishes—do best when started from seed, as they dislike having their roots disturbed once they start growing.
See our list of which seeds are best started indoors versus outdoors below.
Which Seeds Should You Start Indoors?
Not every seed should be started indoors. In fact, there are vegetables that grow perfectly well when started outdoors and even prefer not to be transplanted. Ultimately, I decide on it depending on the list I prepare for my summer garden, which is a clear plan on what vegetables, fruits and flowers I like to grow a year.
I always research on each of the items that I want to grow, like how long does it take to harvest once its planted, how to take care of it, what kind of soil does it need to grow and make a note on each which gives me an idea on what to be started indoors or what to be planted outdoors.
Always Keep in mind that there isn’t a hard-and-fast rule about what you can start indoors and outdoors; it varies by your experience, your personal preference, your location, and the plant itself.
In general, we find that:
• Crops that are best started indoors include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and tomatoes. Those with a slower root development, like cauliflower, celery, eggplant, and peppers, should also be started indoors.
• Tender vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers are very susceptible to the cold temperatures of spring, so it’s best to start them indoors and keep them safe from unpredictable weather.
When to Start Seeds Indoors
It’s essential to sow seeds at the correct time. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, so Sow too early and plants may have outgrown their pots before the weather has warmed up enough to plant them outside. But start seeds too late and they won’t have enough time to reach maturity before the end of the growing season. It’s a balance! So what I did last year, since it was my first year doing a summer garden is that I kept a planting calendar on everything I have grown, which helps me a lot this year to plan things up.
• As a general rule, most annual vegetables should be sown indoors about six weeks before the last frost in your area.
• Your packet of seeds will often list when the seeds should be started indoors. Like it may say, “start indoors 8 weeks before last expected frost date in your area.”
• For starting seeds, you really only need a seed-starting mix or a regular potting mix, containers, and a good source of light.
• I often repurpose food containers such as yogurt cups and sour cream containers as seed starting containers. I just clean them out and poke a few drainage holes in their bottoms. They are generally large enough to house one or two small seedlings until I plant them outside.
When you sow the seeds Be sure to plant your seeds into the depth listed on the seed packet. Most seeds can simply be gently pressed into the mixture with your fingers or you can use the eraser end of a pencil to do so. When choosing which seeds to plant, choose the largest, healthiest-looking seeds in the packet for the best chance at germination.
Label your sowings, especially different varieties of the same type of plant. This is important! You might think you’ll remember, but it’s way too easy to get confused, especially if you’ve got seedlings with very similar leaves. Pop on the date of sowing and the variety you’ve sown.
Use a mist sprayer to water. Leave to drain through from the surface and then repeat. You really want to wet the mix, so the seeds are woken up from their slumber. Any excess will just drain out of the bottom.
To Speed Up the Germination The best way to achieve this is to give your seeds as close to ideal conditions as possible, which in most cases means a little warmth especially until it germinate. The seed packet should give an indication as to the ideal temperatures. It usually gives you an idea of how long germination should take.
And Once around half of the seedlings are sprouted, remove them from the humidity dome or remove from the plastic covering; then move the seedlings to somewhere with good, strong light.
Let There Be Light: Up to 16 hours a day of light is fine.
outside when it’s either warm enough or, more usually for cool-season crops, once the light levels have improved just a bit more.
Transfer Seedlings outside once its warm and nice condition for them to grow.
Hope this post helped you guys at least a bit, Enjoy Gardening!!!!
For more garden tips and home decor, follow along
Instagram: my_vintagehomestyle
Website: www.myvintagehomestyle.com