Living in New England where we have long, harsh winters and shorter growing seasons, sometimes it is best to start seeds indoors and get a head start. Once Robbie and I sat down and made a list of the plants we wanted to grow in our raised beds this year, I researched which ones would be best started indoors. We could always just buy plants from our local nursery to plant in the beds once the time comes, but I enjoy picking out the seeds (we always get untreated and not genetically modified seeds; usually organic) and watching them grow. What a great way for our toddler to learn about plants too! He was able to help me plant the seeds, and he helped me to water them everyday and watch them get bigger and bigger.
Here is what we started indoors:
Tomato (Brandywine)
Orange Cherry Tomatoes (Sungold)
Basil (Italian Genovese)
Cucumbers (Marketmore)
Broccoli (Di Cicco)
Day 1 (4/18/2013):
Day 8 (4/26/2013):
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| basil |
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| cherry tomatoes |
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| broccoli |
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| tomatoes |
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| cucumbers |
Day 12 (4/30/2013):
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| cucumbers |
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| cherry tomatoes |
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| tomatoes |
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| broccoli |
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| basil |
Day 18 (5/6/2013):
As you can see, one of my naughty cats chewed up my cucumber seedlings! We've since built a fortress around them and they seem to be recovering, but boy was I irritated!
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| chewed up cucumbers |
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| chewed up cucumbers |
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| cherry tomatoes |
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| tomatoes |
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| basil |
On that 18th day, I decided the broccoli was starting to look a little wimpy, and since they are cold tolerant I decided to plant them outside to see how they would do. I also sowed some new seeds directly into the bed because I wasn't convinced these wimpy seedling would survive the transfer.
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| broccoli |
Now, a week later, only one of the plants survived, but some hardy looking seedling have germinated in their place which is reassuring.
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| the only remaining original broccoli plant |
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| new broccoli germinating |
Day 25 (5/13/2013):
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| cherry tomatoes |
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| tomatoes |
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| cucumbers |
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| basil |
Outside I planted a few cold tolerate plants:
Kale (Dwarf Blue Curled)
Peas
Strawberries (two varieties: Earliglow and Sparkle)
Both the kale and peas took what felt like a while to germinate. I was getting a little nervous when nothing was appearing, but they seem to be doing great now.
Day 10 (5/4/2013):
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| kale |
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| pea |
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| strawberries starting size |
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| strawberries starting size |
Day 17 (5/13/2013):
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| kale |
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| pea |
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| pea |
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| strawberries |
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| strawberries |
We are very happy with the progress of all our plants so far, especially seeing the ones in our new beds since we weren't sure how they would deal with the not yet decomposed layers (despite reassurance from books). Soon I will be posting about the rest of the seeds we will be planting in the garden as well as how we came up with the final plant arrangements in the raised beds.
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