Sunday, December 22, 2013

19 weeks and counting

I've started the countdown to my last frost. Should be about May 10 for my new garden. 19 weeks!! All my seed starting is based on this countdown. The first seeds to plant will be onions and celeriac, which get started 11 weeks before the last frost. So I have 8 weeks to get ready. Lights, shelves, potting soil, trays, seeds. It's exciting to have a date set and a countdown going!

2 comments:

Caitlin said...

i live in KY. It's snowing today. I want to plant a garden in my backyard. Do I plant seed before or after the last frost?

Thanks
Caitlin

kathy said...

Caitlin,

What a great question!!! Most seeds should be started indoos in pots before the last frost to give them a head start. Check the back of the seed packet to see how far before the last first to plant. Also, I wrote a little app so you can see when to plant everything. It's on my side bat, with a link called "online planting calendar".

Some plants do best planted outside. Plant peas, radish, beets, tettuce, escarole, arugula outside as soon as the snow is gone and the ground it thawed and not too muddy to turn with a shovel. After the ground has warmed up, about two weeks after the last frost, you can plant sunflower, beans, squash, nasturtium directly in the garden and you can transplant the seedlings you started inside in pots earlier.

Have fun starting your garden! I'm starting a new garden too this year. It's exciting!