Starting in SD!

Well, the snow has 'mostly' melted - for now - and I was able to get out and pull out my stakes and pull up last season's debris. I got to try out my new 'gardening' shoes - crocs that look like ballet flats (gotta love hoseable plastique ). It was 36 degrees this morning, and when I came in from grubbin' it was 50 degrees! Supposed to snow again by Tuesday, so had to do what I could when some of the ground was bare.

Now that I have exhausted myself I am at the computer with a glass of homemade wine planning which seeds I will be able to start inside tonight.

TC

Got the seeds started:

Tomatoes (3 each except 6 Cherry):
Banana Legs
Purple Russian
Russian Big Roma
Porter's Dark Cherry
Roughwood Plum

Herbs:
Basil (6)
Catnip (Lemon Scented - 6)

Orange Bell Peppers (6)

Can you tell I had a tray with 36 plugs?!

LOL @ filling the tray. Duh, what else do you do with one? Give it to the neighbors? Maybe I give away the results, but not the starts...

If you don't mind me asking, what is your frost date up there? I don't doubt anything you are doing....I just have no clue about anything north of me.

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:If you don't mind me asking, what is your frost date up there? I don't doubt anything you are doing....I just have no clue about anything north of me.

Last frost is approx. 5/15 - 5/21. I generally put out my tomatoes Memorial Day weekend or the weekend after (or later, because I am usually running behind, my seedlings died, I have to scramble to find starts, etc... )Starting seedlings indoors is a gamble for me so I am trying to start early this year in case I have to go for Round 2. First few years I just plain killed them - now I know it's called damping off. 2 years in a row my cat (not the seed-friendly one in my avatar) sat on or ate my seedlings. Last year when I tried hardening them off I put them out right before a windstorm and had a one-woman search-and-rescue throughout my yard for my tomato seedlings - found most of them but had NO idea what was being planted where (do we have a Smiley for BRAIN FART? Oh, found it! ).

Each year my garden is a little more successful than the last, so I guess I am learning as I go. I am hoping the SFG method will solve some of my 's!

TC

Okay, need to know if this is possible:

Planted my seeds in the little pop-up pellets last night. This morning I could swear that I saw 2 little upside-down U-shaped stems trying to poke out of the mix. I can't wait to get home and check it again, but is this possible after only 12 hours?

TC

GooseGirl
I have had seedlings show up like upsidedown U's in two days. If your seedling area is nice and toasty, anything is possible.

False alarm - both were little gel-beads for water retention. I am just over-eager to see sprouts!

Goosegirl wrote:False alarm - both were little gel-beads for water retention. I am just over-eager to see sprouts!

Don't worry, your new babies will be here soon.

Goosegirl wrote:False alarm - both were little gel-beads for water retention. I am just over-eager to see sprouts!

YAY, I'm not the only one!

I have seen lettuce in two days, though. Most of us have goofed multiple times, too. For me, my biggest struggle so far this year is my darned (for lack of a dirtier word) dog. That sucker just keeps getting me off guard. She's better than any squirrel I've encountered with my bird gardens.

I put the netting over my hoops earlier this week and have been taking my toms and pepps out to harden off the past couple of days. Yesterday, I pop outside to see a dirt explosion on my deck. Two of my beefsteak maters had bit the dust and my dog was smiling at me from afar. She came up the deck to see what I was doing and when I looked at her, she tucked and ran. She knows what she's doing....and knows it's for attention. Obviously, she's in the teen phase at 16 months. Grin and bear it or grill her up as flank steaks....I have trouble deciding some days. (Shhh, I think we'll keep her. She's such a sweetheart when not telling me passive-aggressively she needs her walkies.)

Point is, we only learn from our mistakes. That's the great thing about this forum...we can speed that part up by learning from others' mistakes.

Sorry I can't change that frost date, though. That's a killer for me being down here. I don't know what I'd do.

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:Sorry I can't change that frost date, though. That's a killer for me being down here. I don't know what I'd do.

Oh, I know! It is killing me as well! We had a bit of a melt in the last few weeks and I could see most of my dead brown lawn with only a few piles of snirt left (snirt= snow+dirt) and today we have had close to 1/4 inch of sleet/ice that is now being covered with snow and expected to have 5-9 inches total new snow by tomorrow afternoon. Another round of snow for the weekend as well. As it is, I got over-eager and planted my tomato seedlings (in house of course) a week ahead of schedule, but I couldn't help myself when we had such a BEAUTIFUL 40F/50F weekend!

TC

Goose,

I started this past weekend too. This will be my first attempt at gardening and am alittle nervous about it. What part of SD are you from?

Love "snirt." I'll have to use that....with permission, of course.

My favorite was from a local meteorologist in SE Kansas. He said "snizzle" every time it would snow and drizzle.

scmelik wrote:Goose,

I started this past weekend too. This will be my first attempt at gardening and am alittle nervous about it. What part of SD are you from?

Hey Scmelik! Great to see another Snow Gardener in SD! I am in Sisseton. Did you get blasted with ice before the snow started last night?

Don't be nervous - just try it and if anything fails, you know for the next year. This will be my first year with SFG and I am hoping that as well as getting good stuff from the ground I can make it a little nicer looking along the way. I tend to be a lazy gardener and by harvest my yard is, well, ugly. With permanent beds and walkways, I think even my dominant lazy gene may be overcome!

TC

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:Love "snirt." I'll have to use that....with permission, of course.

My favorite was from a local meteorologist in SE Kansas. He said "snizzle" every time it would snow and drizzle.

Even trade - snirt for snizzle! Never heard that one before - LOVE IT!!!!!

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:

Goosegirl wrote:False alarm - both were little gel-beads for water retention. I am just over-eager to see sprouts!

YAY, I'm not the only one!

No longer a false alarm - I officially have one basil sprout! 1 peat plug sprouted, 35 to go.....

TC

Yay for the Basil