seedlings
How to Easily Separate Vegetable and Flower Seedlings
Don't like thinning perfectly good seedlings? Here's an easy way to separate and transplant them. Works great on hard-to-transplant veggies like carrots too!
Why Aren’t My Seeds Sprouting?
Having trouble getting your seeds to sprout or your seedlings to survive? It’s almost always one of three problems. Here's how to diagnose and fix them.
It’s Not Spring Yet
The daytime weather says it's summer (75F/24C) but last night says it's still winter (37F/3C). Sorry. Sigh... Just a few more weeks guys.
Getting Ready for Spring
It's five weeks until spring and a mere days until our last overnight frost. Unlike many a previous year, the greenhouse seedlings are off to a great start. Today we'll be dividing and re-potting into larger containers so everybody will have strong roots when we finally transplant into the vegetable garden in a few weeks.
Fall Finally! Let’s Get to Work!
The last of the summer veggies I’ve been reading “what to plant for fall” stories since August. In some ways I’m jealous of people who can start their fall garden in late summer, but it’s not an option here in the San Diego county foothills. By August the sun is directly overhead and it hasn’t rained in four months or more. The ground is hot and dry, the air is hotter and drier. All the natives drop their leaves and other plants, even mature, well-watered ones, wilt. And the greenhouse is basically an air fryer, so the only [keep reading...]
Time to Get This Garden Started
I used to take that "start indoors 4 to 6 weeks before last frost" stuff on the back of seed packets pretty seriously. It took me about 5 years and umpteen dead seedlings before I figured out, regardless of what the weather tables say about my climate zone, that "last frost" could be anywhere from mid-February to late April. So now, rather than trying to figure out when the last frost might be and working backwards, I always plant my first sets of seeds at the end of February. Spring veggies that don't mind a cold snap or two when [keep reading...]