The smell of young tomato leaves in mid-April is hard to beat. It’s funny how that smell can be so nauseating in September, yet delicious in spring.

If the weather patterns had mimicked 2010, these cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts seedlings would be long planted in the garden. But with temperatures barely above freezing, and snow predicted through the end of this week, the garden is doomed to have a late start this year. All I can do now is sit in the spare bedroom, gaze at my young vegetable plants, and dream of sunny days ahead.

It’s that time of year again!

10 weeks until Minnesota’s average last frost. We like to put stuff out earlier than that if the weather permits. I have a lot of plans for the garden this year – including growing the flowers for our wedding this September! I’ll have to post more about that later. I also ordered 100 grape vines, and Chris ordered some nut trees so I’m sure this summer we will be busy planting.

There is a nice little nursery just down the road, so to save some time I am planning on just purchasing a lot of transplants from them. There are a few varieties that we just can’t pick up locally though: heirloom tomatoes, fancy peppers, funky-colored cauliflower… so I took out the shelves and grow lights and set everything up in our spare bedroom again.

There seems to be a lot of debate on using coconut fiber vs. peat moss as a seed starting medium. I read a few posts on gardening forums, and people have strong opinions about both – on which is the most environmentally friendly, and which performs better. I haven’t made a decision yet, but I did decide to put both to the test this year with our seedlings.

I picked up some Hoffman Seed Starter from Bachman’s. It is made of peat moss, vermiculite, and limestone. I also picked up some Burpee Eco-Friendly Concentrated Seed Starting Mix from Target, which is made of coconut fiber.

Half of the pots are filled with peat moss (the green pots in the picture above), and the other half with coconut fiber (yellow pots above). I prefer the consistency of the coconut fiber, and it seems to be better at both retaining moisture and draining than peat moss. We’ll just have to wait to see which one the plants prefer!

Welcome back to VEGarden!

The sun is shining and though temperatures are still in the 40s, we have hit some 60º F days – spring is just around the corner! And this means that it’s time to start planning the garden!

So, the first task: starting seeds.

Chris prepared the soil mix: 3 parts peat, 2 parts compost, 2 parts water, and a handful of cottonseed meal. He sifted the peat through a screen to remove some of the large lumps – this left him with a very nice, smooth soil mix for making blocks.

This is exciting: we started ALL of our vegetable plants from seeds this year. This is the lot of the starters: tons of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, a couple okra, and a few broccoli. There are also some grapefruit trees, papaya trees, and medjool date trees mixed into the lot.

The plan this year is to start our entire garden from seed. We started tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, eggplant, and okra at the beginning of February. Here’s where the “operation” takes place: in the basement on a table surrounded by chicken wire (to keep out a cat, who destroyed the seedlings last year). A few fluorescent lights and a space heater later, and we we’re ready to start growing!

A list of what we have:

Tomatoes