The weather has been beautiful lately. I'm itching to get out and work in the garden ... well, if we HAD a garden. We're still working on that.
But, if all goes as planned, we'll be tilling and fencing our kitchen garden soon. We're just waiting for our
Troy-Bilt Horse (a BIG tiller) to get back from its spring tuneup and for the
soil to dry from all the rain we had earlier this week. We've found some 7-foot high plastic deer fencing at Williams Lumber & Home Center in Rhinebeck and will be anchoring that with 4-foot chicken wire fencing buried 3-feet deep to deter digging pests like woodchucks.
After we create those lovely new garden beds, it's going to be hard to hold back from planting in them. And in fact, I will plant -- some things. Cool-season greens and peas are fine to plant now. (Here's an article I wrote about eight delicious and healthy greens that grow well in cool weather.)
But we Hudson Valley folks have be patient about planting many other veggies now because it's still too early. (Even if we do get 70-degree temps now and then.) I always plant vegetables that are less-cold tolerant, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and squash, between Mother's Day and Memorial Day in my northern Dutchess County gardens.
But it's not too early to get a head start on growing plants such as tomatoes, eggplant and peppers by starting seeds inside. That's what I'm doing now!
Rather than get into a long explanation of seed starting, I'm sharing a great video below about how to do it yourself. Thanks to Renee Shepherd of Renee's Garden Seeds for the link. She sells great seeds. Another good seed source -- for seeds from our New York region -- is the Hudson Valley Seed Library in Accord (Ulster County). The Seed Library also has some useful how-to essays about seed starting, both direct sowing in the ground and starting seeds inside.
Happy seed starting! What are you growing?
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