It seems crazy to be doing fall and winter planting in the middle of this August drought and heat. But it's time. Since so few fall seedlings are available in nurseries, I've volunteered to grow seedlings for our community garden. I have 50 orders for about 150 pots of about 10 different varieties. I'm growing the. In small pots, about 4 plants per pot.
I set up a large table in my garden to grow them on. I had to cover then to keep the cabbage worms away. With the fabric and the heat the seedlings started to fry. It was over 100 F under the cover! So they are now inside under lights though not all of them fit. The rest are on the window sill.
I'm growing Swiss chard, cilantro, lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, escarole, broccoli, bok choi, beets, kale, and calendulas.
I'd love to be able to get them all outside on the table. Maybe temps will go down, but still 80-90F predicted the next 5 days. I'm also hoping the temps come down by the time they're too big for the little pits and need to be planted. Oh well. We'll see what happens. For now, I t's fun to have a full shelf of seedlings to watch grow.
1 comment:
what a great idea! i'm jealous of your community gardeners! wish i could get my hands on some fall seedlings but as you said there is barely anything to choose from at the stores. guess a fall garden just has not caught on yet. and - again!- i ran behind on seeding my own broccoli cauliflower cabbage... the summer sunshine gets me every time! i just do not have fall on the brain at that time of year.... maybe next year! good luck with your baby plants though... the drought has def been a challenge... but I'm sure you'll succeed given all your experience!
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