Coaching for January

So, who's stoked for the spring garden season to begin? If you're frantically waving your hand around, you're in luck because it has begun!

No, really.

And if you're planning to grow crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant or anything from seed that says "Sow indoors" on the packet, your time is here to get your seeds ordered and your indoor space set up for seed starting.

Each type of vegetable has its own set of rules for getting growing and some of them have a bit more wiggle room with those rules. Here's a list of the most popular homegrown vegetables and how to start them from seed so that you actually end up with the vegetables that you want. 

FYI: We're using the last frost date of March 1 to determine when to start the seeds in NorCal.

A list of equipment for starting seeds indoors is at the end, so just keep a readin'. 

Basil
How to sow: Direct in the garden soil lightly covered with soil or start indoors 3-4 weeks prior to transplanting outdoors by surface sowing (don't cover) and keeping mo-ist

When to start: 2/1 indoors, after 3/1 outdoors 

What to expect: Germination in 5-10 days

Beans (Pole)    How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1" deep, 3 seeds per pole

When to start: End of February or after soil temps have exceeded 60 degrees, so after it's been 60 degrees during the day for a week or more 

What to expect: Germination in 3-7 days. Climbing the trellis within a month of germination.

  

Beets 

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1/2" deep, 3-4 seeds/inch, no need to thin

When to start: After soil temps have exceeded 45 degrees. So, like, whenever you want in NorCal.

What to expect: Germination 7 days, young greens in 2 weeks

  

Carrots

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, lightly covered with soil, 30 seeds/ft, DO NOT LET SEEDS DRY OUT

When to start: End of February or after soil temps have exceeded 60 degrees, so after it's been 60 degrees during the day for a week or more 

What to expect: If moisture is kept consistent and temperatures warm, germination within 1-3 weeks (yes, they take forever to germinate)

Corn

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1" deep, 1 seed/hole, in blocks of 4 rows (for pollination to occur)

When to start: End of March or after soil temps have exceeded 65 degrees, so after it's been 65 degrees during the day for a week or more 

What to expect: Germination in 7-14 days

Cucumbers

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1" deep, 4-6 seeds per mounded hill

When to start: End of February or after soil temps have exceeded 60 degrees, so after it's been 60 degrees during the day for a week or more  

What to expect: Germination in 7-14 days

Eggplant

How to sow: Start indoors with bottom heat and supplemental light to 12 hours/day, 1/4" deep, 1 seed/cell

When to start: 1/11 or 8-10 weeks before last frost

What to expect: Germination in 10-21 days

Kale

How to sow: Direct in the garden, lightly covered with soil to 1/4"

When to start: Early spring for a spring/summer crop

What to expect: Germination in 10-21 days

Lettuce

How to sow: Direct in the garden, lightly covered with soil to 1/4" according to the depth indicated on the package

When to start: After February 1, while temperatures are still cool

What to expect: Germination in 7-10 days

Melons

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1/2" deep, 4-6 seeds per mounded hill

When to start: End of February or after soil temps have exceeded 60 degrees, so after it's been 60 degrees during the day for a week or more 

What to expect: Germination in 7-10 days

Peas

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 2" deep, 6" apart

When to start: Early spring for a spring/summer crop

What to expect: Germination in 7-14 days

Peppers

How to sow: Start indoors with bottom heat and supplemental light to 12 hours/day, 1/4" deep, 1 seed/cell

When to start: 1/11 or 8-10 weeks before last frost

What to expect: Germination in 10-21 days

Squash

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1/2" deep, 1-2 seeds every 3'

When to start: End of February or after soil temps have exceeded 60 degrees, so after it's been 60 degrees during the day for a week or more 

What to expect: Germination in 10-14 days

Tomatoes 

How to sow: Start indoors with bottom heat and supplemental light to 12 hours/day, 1/4" deep, 1-2 seeds/cell

When to start: 1/25 or 8-10 weeks before last frost

What to expect: Germination in 7-10 days

  

Seed starting equipment for indoor growing

Bottom heat: Heat mats

Trays: 11x22 tray

Domes: Fits 11x22 trays

Flats: 72 cell flat

Grow lights: 4' fixture

Fan: Oscillating fan

Soilless mix: Seed starter mix

How to start seeds like a pro

*Excerpt from our monthly coaching update*

 
Each type of vegetable has its own set of rules for getting growing and some of them have a bit more wiggle room with those rules. Here's a list of the most popular homegrown vegetables and how to start them from seed so that you actually end up with the vegetables that you want. 

FYI: We're using the last frost date of March 1 to determine when to start the seeds in NorCal.

A list of equipment for starting seeds indoors is at the end, so just keep a readin'. 

Basil
How to sow: Direct in the garden soil lightly covered with soil or start indoors 3-4 weeks prior to transplanting outdoors by surface sowing (don't cover) and keeping mo-ist

When to start: 2/1/14 indoors, after 3/1/14 outdoors 

What to expect: Germination in 5-10 days

Beans (Pole)     
How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1" deep, 3 seeds per pole

When to start: End of February or after soil temps have exceeded 60 degrees, so after it's been 60 degrees during the day for a week or more 

What to expect: Germination in 3-7 days. Climbing the trellis within a month of germination.

  

Beets 

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1/2" deep, 3-4 seeds/inch, no need to thin

When to start: After soil temps have exceeded 45 degrees. So, like, whenever you want in NorCal.

What to expect: Germination 7 days, young greens in 2 weeks

  

Carrots

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, lightly covered with soil, 30 seeds/ft, DO NOT LET SEEDS DRY OUT

When to start: End of February or after soil temps have exceeded 60 degrees, so after it's been 60 degrees during the day for a week or more 

What to expect: If moisture is kept consistent and temperatures warm, germination within 1-3 weeks (yes, they take forever to germinate)

Corn

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1" deep, 1 seed/hole, in blocks of 4 rows (for pollination to occur)

When to start: End of March or after soil temps have exceeded 65 degrees, so after it's been 65 degrees during the day for a week or more 

What to expect: Germination in 7-14 days

Cucumbers

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1" deep, 4-6 seeds per mounded hill

When to start: End of February or after soil temps have exceeded 60 degrees, so after it's been 60 degrees during the day for a week or more  

What to expect: Germination in 7-14 days

Eggplant

How to sow: Start indoors with bottom heat and supplemental light to 12 hours/day, 1/4" deep, 1 seed/cell

When to start: 1/11/14 or 8-10 weeks before last frost

What to expect: Germination in 10-21 days

Kale

How to sow: Direct in the garden, lightly covered with soil to 1/4"

When to start: Early spring for a spring/summer crop

What to expect: Germination in 10-21 days

Lettuce

How to sow: Direct in the garden, lightly covered with soil to 1/4" according to the depth indicated on the package

When to start: After February 1, while temperatures are still cool

What to expect: Germination in 7-10 days

Melons

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1/2" deep, 4-6 seeds per mounded hill

When to start: End of February or after soil temps have exceeded 60 degrees, so after it's been 60 degrees during the day for a week or more 

What to expect: Germination in 7-10 days

Peas

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 2" deep, 6" apart

When to start: Early spring for a spring/summer crop

What to expect: Germination in 7-14 days

Peppers

How to sow: Start indoors with bottom heat and supplemental light to 12 hours/day, 1/4" deep, 1 seed/cell

When to start: 1/11/14 or 8-10 weeks before last frost

What to expect: Germination in 10-21 days

Squash

How to sow: Direct in the garden soil, 1/2" deep, 1-2 seeds every 3'

When to start: End of February or after soil temps have exceeded 60 degrees, so after it's been 60 degrees during the day for a week or more 

What to expect: Germination in 10-14 days

Tomatoes 

How to sow: Start indoors with bottom heat and supplemental light to 12 hours/day, 1/4" deep, 1-2 seeds/cell

When to start: 1/25/14 or 8-10 weeks before last frost

What to expect: Germination in 7-10 days

  

Seed starting equipment for indoor growing

Bottom heat: Heat mats

Trays: 11x22 tray

Domes: Fits 11x22 trays

Flats: 72 cell flat

Grow lights: 4' fixture

Fan: Oscillating fan

Soilless mix: Seed starter mix

 

 

How to seed shop like a total pro

 

 *Excerpt from our monthly coaching update*

 

Digging yourself out from underneath a monster pile of gorgeous glossy seed catalogs? 

 

Yeah, it happens.

 

If you're staring down those catalogs with a mixture of anxiety, desire and straight up fear - take a read through our guide below so that you can seed shop like a pro and finally force those catalogs into doing good instead of evil for your vegetable seed shopping routine.

 

For noobs

1. If you're growing your first garden, first make a quick list of the vegetables you like to eat. 

2. Then, next to each crop, write in their sunlight and space requirements. 

3. Then cross off any that need sunlight or space conditions that you just don't have. Be honest with yourself here. "Full sun" means 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day, not four. You won't be happy with a big beefy tomato grown in four hours of sunlight/day because you won't get any big beefy tomatoes. Instead you'll have leggy weak plants with a few fruitless flowers. Just sayin'.

4. With your list of crops, leaf through those catalogs and choose varieties of those crops that you want to try out. 

5. Order, plan your planting schedule, get ready to live.

For vets

1. If you have grown a garden every year and you already have your catalogs piled up ready to go, first make a quick list of the vegetables and varieties you grew this year and the plant family they belong to. 

2. Next to each crop, write in whether you'd want them again next year or would rather have a different variety or none of this crop at all. Cross off all the crops you don't want to grow again.

3. Then for all the crops you do want to grow again, next to each crop, note whether you have seeds from last year. Most seeds will keep for up to three years even with lackluster care (like they're sitting on your potting bench in the garage all exposed to temperatures and light and whatever). 

4. With your list of crops, leaf through those catalogs and choose varieties of those crops that you want to try out, keeping in mind that when you get ready to plant, you should only put a crop family where there was a different crop family last year. So, if you grew tomatoes (Solanaceae) in a spot last year, don't plant them in this space again this year. Instead, try a Brassicaceae or Asteraceae crop in its place.

5. Order, plan your planting schedule, get ready to live.

For impulse shoppers

Follow the "For noobs" or "For vets" guide depending on which you are, except your #1 rule is DON'T OPEN THAT CATALOG WITHOUT GOING THROUGH THE STEPS FIRST. Also, don't seed shop while you're hungry. Seriously. Bad things happen.

For alleged black thumbs

Follow the "For noobs" or "For vets" guide depending on which you are, except that when you get to choosing varieties, go for hybrid varieties, those with "F1" in their names and ones with listed disease resistances. These are going to be bred for success and are less susceptible to cooties and failure than their heirloom or non-hybridized brethren. 

 

Also, it wouldn't hurt to go back to your list and be brutally honest with yourself about your sunlight and space conditions. If you had a tomato plant that never produced or ripened fruit, melons that never set flowers, cucumbers that never vined - you probably aren't getting enough sunlight. Try plants that grow in Part Sun conditions and you'll have a better chance of success in 2014. 

Now, go! Seed shop like a pro, plant for success and, if you want some guidance on when and how to start those seeds, subscribe to our monthly coaching update because *maybe* that's the next topic on the docket...

Just maybe.

 

 

Is this a weed? YES. PULL IT NOW.

Suddenly, it's 60 degrees outside. After weeks of frost, overnight temperatures in the 30s (and 20s in some Bay Area places - yikes) and daytime highs barely scratching the 50s.

Everyone and everything says YAY.

YAY FOR THAT.

The bummer is that we're not the only ones who noticed the new warm temps.

The weeds are on to us.

Did someone say, "sunshine"? [WEED. PULL IT NOW.]

The garden is, too, which is nice, but if I want to keep the newly-excited-that-it's-warm weeds from taking over the barely-cracking-the-surface garden plants as they shake loose the cold winter soil from their tiny limbs - I better get to weeding.

Sun? YES, PLEASE. (Sweet peas are NOT a weed.)

But what's a weed?

Crab grass IS a weed.

I'm not going to get all philosophical on you, here, so don't worry. Good news is that when it comes to growing vegetables, it's pretty easy to tell what's a weed and what's a food because there's none of that grey area about "Well, that is sort of pretty, so we'll just let it grow and see what it is."

No.

There's no room for "Let's see what it is" when you're growing vegetables. It's either a vegetable, a flower that you planted on purpose or a weed.

And the weeds must go. And some of the flowers if they're getting all WE OWN THIS PLACE on  you.

I'm looking at you, Alyssum.

Dietes seedlings ARE weeds (the little pointed sprouts). PULL THEM NOW.

So, do a little yard reconnaissance this early spring and get out to the vegetable garden and your yard and pull out the not-food and not-purposefully-planted flowers so that they don't turn into huge nutrient-sucking pest habitats, OK?

Just say yes. You'll be glad you did.

Not weeds:

California Poppies

Borage

Alyssum

Mustard

Dill

WEEDS:

Dandelion

Lamb's Quarter

Oxalis (clover)

Purple flowering weed

Crab grass

If you haven't gotten enough here and want to go on a weeding rampage in your garden (we like you so much), more photos of all of the above are on our Pinterest boards.

Good hunting.