Ending and Beginning

Plan next year’s garden before you order the seeds.

Starting Seeds Indoors

• Plant tomato and pepper seeds around April 1st.
  • Think about custom-growing tomato plants for other people. Put an ad in Craig’s list asking people what kind of tomato they would like and then grow that kind. If we don’t already have the seed, go ahead and buy it. We would get to experiment with many different kinds of tomatoes that way, and make a few bucks. We could even deliver them in the Madison area.
• Plant 2 or 3 seeds in each newspaper pot, and plan to thin to 1 per pot. You don’t want to have to pull apart the little seedlings, it damages the roots too much.
• Use a heating pad under the seeds for better and faster germination.
• In the Fall, put some topsoil or potting mix in a place where it won’t freeze.
• Remember that the greenhouse provides only minimal protection from frost, especially in the Spring when the ground is still cold. Heat the greenhouse or open the door to the basement when necessary.

Potatoes

• Plant early potatoes outside around 4/15 [need to confirm this].
• 5 lbs of seed potatoes equals a 30′ to 35′ row.
  • Maybe buy 5 or 10 lbs of varieties we like and use grocery store or from M’s work for the rest.
• If they get frosted, they’ll come back

Starting Seeds Outdoors

• Kale and Collards should be planted inside or very early outside (May 1st or so) or in late Summer for Fall use.
• Would planting squash a little later (around June 1st) avoid some cucumber beetle and squash bug problems?

Tomatoes

• Blight — we lost most of our tomato plants to blight in 2009, before they had produced many ripe tomatoes. Need to plant blight-resistant ones.

Pests

• Plant some winter squash indoors with the other indoor-started seeds, then get them in the garden as soon as possible. Those plants will be your trap crop for squash bugs/cucumber beetles. Surround them with flat boards on the ground, which the bugs like to use for cover. Flip the boards over, probably early in the morning, and squash ’em! Meanwhile, plant your main squash plants as late as possible.
• Drown many of your spring cucumber beetles by placing pans painted yellow and filled with soapy water beside the squash trap crop. (The beetles are attracted to the yellow color.)

Planning

• Mapping
  • Grow greens along the east edge of the main garden — they will tolerate shade better than most vegetables.
  • Corn and tomatoes in West bed
  • Move lowbush blueberries to row just South of Highbush blueberries
• Plants to try:
  • Mangelwurzel (beet-like main food crop)
    • http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/product_details.aspx?item_no=PS10620
  • Squash or pumpkin for edible seeds?
    • Kakai at Johnny’s.
  • Blight-resistant tomato
    • Speckled Roman
  • Corn for meal
  • Popcorn
  • Purslane cultivar
  • Carrot Scarlet Keeper from Seeds of Change
  • Margaret’s Hungarian Pepper from Jung’s
• If you’ve got a bare spot in the garden during the growing season, plant a green manure crop.