A brief note on seed starting- which, you should be doing now if you want to get stuff in the ground on-time for Summer!! Spring is not only the time for cleaning out the house but also for transitioning the garden. Out on my porch I’m transitioning my little container garden beds from the cooler weather crops to full-fledged summer goodness. I pulled out some leafy greens (but left in a lot of spinach and lettuce) and uprooted the cool weather flowers I had cultivated.
But sticking warmer vegetable/flower seeds in the ground in April is still a little dicey- the soil is a bit too chilly for their liking. Not wanting to miss out on tomatoes and peppers right from the start, I choose to sow my seeds indoors to get a jump on things and when the weather is really truly hot. That way, the little plants will be lovin life when they finally get into the big beds.
My tomato and pepper plants (both of which I wanted to grow from seed since I was given some cool heirloom varieties) were both candidates for this- the instructions said they needed to be germinated in 70-80 degree soil- not quite the weather that L.A is consistently having right now. I started these little guys off in egg crates and plan to pop them out when the weather warms up and when they are sturdy- maybe 3 or 4 weeks- and then they’ll be off to a good start.
Say it!