So here is the new year and soon the seed starting for the veggie garden will begin. So far I have not yet ordered more seeds. I did order some last fall but really have more to get.

However today I ordered cellpacks to use for my tomato and pepper seed starting.

Lets talking about veggie gardens plans.

I figured it was about time for a new thread to be opened.

Shadegardener said:I figured it was about time for a new thread to be opened.

Me too!!

Thinking of what veggie seeds I still need to order. Pretty soon it will be time to start the peppers and tomatoes. As to eggplants, I plan to simply buy starter plants like I did last season.

I need a new tomato. Thessaloniki was a nice salad tomato and perfect-looking but I'm wanting to grow something with a little more of the sweet/acidy, tomato-y flavor. And I need snow peas. Have been growing Rembrandt but need to see if there's something better (and organic). Taking a pass on potatoes this year. Am going to grow zucchini and yellow squash in containers again. They did very well. Has anyone grown cucumbers in big containers?

Shadegardener said:I need a new tomato. Thessaloniki was a nice salad tomato and perfect-looking but I'm wanting to grow something with a little more of the sweet/acidy, tomato-y flavor. And I need snow peas. Have been growing Rembrandt but need to see if there's something better (and organic). Taking a pass on potatoes this year. Am going to grow zucchini and yellow squash in containers again. They did very well. Has anyone grown cucumbers in big containers?

I grew those Spacemaster Bush type cukes in a huge shallow planter one year. They did very well and made nice cucumbers. I do think they did well in a pot because of the type they were with a very short vines. I can't see common cukes doing that well as the vines seem to want to go on forever.

I will be planting some Swiss Giant Snow Peas this spring. I tried last fall but the slugs ate up the baby seedlings as soon as they sprouted so nothing came of it.

Were the Spacemasters prolific and tasty? You did inspire me to try a fall sowing of snow peas but it stayed too warm and dry for them. I may have sowed them too early.

Shadegardener said:Were the Spacemasters prolific and tasty? You did inspire me to try a fall sowing of snow peas but it stayed too warm and dry for them. I may have sowed them too early.

Yes, they were nice cucumbers. Very tasty. Don't remember how productive they were but I think good or I would have remembered that they weren't good. So yes, good.

Most of my fall peas did very well and I was snacking on peas out in the garden lots. However, I do get a better crop in the spring.

Thanks for the new thread, Rita. I will gather my lists and post soon what I will be growing.

Last of the rutabagas.


Carrots and collards still going strong. One more harvest of cabbage, Last freeze damaged the broccoli, so the sideshoots while plentiful are quite scraggly.
Lettuce ( bibb and iceberg) are seeded in coldframe. Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli will be seeded as soon as this rainy spell is over.

Have some young kale to harvest out of the cold frame and will have to check on the carrots growing in a pot in there.

farmerdill, it is amazing to me that vegetable gardening is just about an all year thing for you.

Those rutabagas look great.

Not much goes on in the winter around here!!

One season I left rutabagas or turnips( now I forget which) in ground over winter. In the spring they were like wood and non edible.

Hi Rita,
Happy I found this at ten posts instead of later.
Lettuce and kale from fall are still alive after a couple good freezes, I am hoping they can survive this mild but really soggy spell we are under. Deadnettle and bittercress are certainly thriving.
I'll do tomatoes and peppers from nursery starts again. More jalapenoes. Cucumbers in the new sunny plot. Maybe sweet potatoes again. Probably not eggplant. Yeh, I'm pretty basic these days.
Oh, I forgot, okra. And hoping the tomatilloes give me a couple volunteers before I go buy plants.

Hi all. Back from hiatus. I have my new seed which I ordered from Best Cool Seeds in January as they said if I waited til then I would get fresher seeds.

We have had massive snow dumps so my yard and raised beds (which are 18" above ground) are now under a foot or so of snow. The yard much deeper. Pond is just a little white depression in the snow. But when the snow leaves I will plant lettuce, spinach, and kale as soon as the ground in the raised beds is workable. Should have planted last fall like I did the year before but we were late with a large project involving joining two beds out front that netted me a bit more than 3x31' of garden space all enclosed with a moose fence. I plan to plant vegies out there in and around the flowers. Even might stuff in a few potato plants. Finally given up on tomatoes. Just not worth the effort without a greenhouse.

I think I have all the seeds (and then some) that I'm going to be buying this year, and more or less organized in baggies according to what they are (tomatoes/peppers/eggplant, pumpkins/squash, lettuce/greens, herbs, etc. ) Next week I'll be starting my onion seeds, which means I need to get at least one of the shelves of my light setup cleaned off -- to that end, I brought in the 7 "naked-seeded" pumpkins that I grew last season, opened them up, and cleaned up the seeds. Next I'll put them into the dehydrator, and then into the freezer until I feel inspired to roast some up; they make a great salad topping! I was a little surprised that several of the pumpkins had "normal" seeds (not hulless); since this is the only time I've grown them I don't know if they just tend to have some like that, or if it was due to crossing with the other C. pepo varieties that I had (which I think is the likely explanation). At any rate, I have plenty of seeds, and the deer will get the pumpkins

when do you put out your onions? I was wondering if I should be planting mine now too. I am trying to hold off which is hard to do as I get so antsy to see things growing then end up with leggy plants. I still don't know what my mystery seedlings are. I thinned them out but despite the lights being all but on top of them (about 2-3" away) they are leggy. I should probably make up a spreadsheet for my seeds then based on the timing note when I should plant them inside. That way I won't jump the gun or forget entirely.

And need to leave room for ABG flats to grow out stuff for their spring sale. I didn't want to haul in the 4x8' plywood and saw horses this year to supplement the light racks but I don't see any way to avoid it.

Sunday, January 30, is the day the seed starting process will begin. The basement will get straightened out, the soilless mix thawed out, the light bulbs replaced that are old or weak, the heat mats put in place, the light fixtures checked out to be sure they all work, the six-pack containers all washed and disinfected with mild bleach solution, all the tags arranged, vinyl gloves set out, pens and markers checked, seeds arranged, journal readied for 2017....

I will be in my dungeon for the better part of the day. maybe the peppers will get started if I get around to it. Then it is two or three weeks to tomato starting. The couple of months off from gardening got me revived enough to be looking forward to the year.

I'm getting itchy fingers to start sowing as well. I am growing some micro greens, leaf lettuces, spinach indoors and waiting for cilantro to sprout. I did buy some Oregon Sugar Pod II snow pea seeds today. Has anyone grown these?

Mary, I usually don't get my onions planted out until around June 1st, but they should be planted earlier here; last year I just did sets (no plants) and planted some around mid May, and those grew a lot better than the later ones -- so this year I want to get my plants put out even earlier in May (and cover them with some Reemay), so I'm starting the seeds 2 weeks earlier than I normally do. Assuming the weather cooperates, of course

Paul, according to my calendar January 30th is on Monday this year

weed: You got that right. Maybe it will take a couple of days. Nothing else for me to do either day or both, so it will turn out OK no matter what.

It took a total of two hours to get ready for next month. And a whole bunch of peppers are in the dirt beginning the sprouting process. Last year I started the second week of February and they did better than ever before. So let's see how this works.

Broccoli's last stand. Just started the spring seedlings. These get plowed under as soon as the bees no longer work them on warm days.