Transplanting seedlings

We're upto our elbows in seedlings now - tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, cukes, basil, marigolds, etc, etc! We counted over 1100 seedlings that are now filling the greenhouse shelves and slats we've set out across the entire raised bed floor area - basically soaking up any sunny space we can squeeze them into. And, more waiting in the house, still under grow lights but ready for transplanting. It was 52C in the greenhouse today, even though it was cool enough outdoors to need a jacket and hat (and they are predicting a light frost tonight). It's amazing how quickly the sun warms the greenhouse and how long the warmth is held - we need to watch that seedlings don't dry out, and remember to open the vents and door during the daytime.

It's been a little crazy around here, trying to get everything transplanted this weekened as we wanted to give the plants at least a week to adjust to their new containers and then some time to harden off before they are sold during our May 22 seedling sale. Luckily, my parents were visiting and so dad was on plant labelling duty while my mom single-handedly transplanted about 500 tomatoes into larger pots! My parents were happy to participate in our farm life - helping feed the hens and collecting the eggs, plus weeding the herb garden and picking fresh salad greens from the coldframe, brought back memories of growing up on a self-sufficient farm in the 1950s for my mom. As it's now May 9, the seedlings have just less than 2 weeks left to grow and prepare for their move to the outdoor gardens around this city! Yes, we'll soon be passing off all these babies we've been tending so carefully since February to their new summer homes...

and, p.s. the fig tree has sprouted it's first fig! Unbelievable! They told us we'd be eating our own figs by the second year.

It's apple blossom season

This week has seen busy days of pruning fruit trees and rose bushes, transplanting rhubarb, cutting fresh asparagus and lettuce daily for meals, transplanting final seedlings for our sale, weeding the flowering strawberries for a more abundant harvest, mulching herbs, starting more lettuce, basil & kale flats, planting radish, carrot, chard, beets, harvesting nettles & sorrel, building a potato bed with strawbales, keeping an eye out under our hops patch for the daily fresh egg that our hen Buttons has taken to laying there (a nice safe nesting spot!)...and we also took some time to admire the beautiful blossoms in our yard and around the neighbourhood as apples, pears, cherries, and service berries are now in bloom. Urban foragers and fruit harvesters, take note now where the fruit trees in your neighbourhood are!

Transplanting Seedlings

We've spent the last few days transplanting our hundreds of tomatoes! We have over 600 tomato plants - a little crazy, but I couldn't resist trying all kinds of unique and familiar varieties - and our greenhouse will be filled to the brim with flats once these and the other herbs & veggies are all transferred into their larger pots ready for selling. With the weather being sunny and warm (15-18C) the greenhouse has been cooking - over 35C, hot and perfect for those tomatoes. At night the temperatures still dip down to 10C or so, but this is just the limit for the young seedlings to be alright. It's magical to walk into the greenhouse, which is a shimmering new green with rows and rows of plants, smelling earthy and warm, with the beds also filled with fresh greens for eating. We feel lucky to have this space and would definitely recommend a greenhouse or coldframe of some shape to any would-be urban (or of course non-urban) homesteader.

Starting seedlings - planting guide

It's time to start a planting schedule, as we will need to begin to start our seedlings in the next few weeks. Last weekend we were at the annual Guelph Organic Conference, and bought some excellent varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Otherwise, we have saved many of the seeds we need from last year's garden, and can also purchase good seeds at the OSC in town.

PLANTING GUIDE (based on frost-free date of May 24):

FEBRUARY
Start lettuce, chard, other greens in greenhouse or in flats indoors (to be planted out to greenhouse). Start selected medicinal and culinary herbs by middle of February. Some take 6-8 weeks to germinate!

10 WEEKS TO LAST FROST (aprox. March 15)
Start seeds of celery, eggplant, leeks, onion, pepper and flowers like impatiens, lobelia, verbena and perennials indoors.

8 WEEKS TO LAST FROST (aprox. March 29)
Start seeds of early head lettuce and flowers like begonia, coleus, nicotiana, petunia and salvia indoors.

7 WEEKS TO LAST FROST (aprox. April 5)
Start seeds of tomatoes, hot peppers, and early basil indoors.

6 WEEKS TO LAST FROST(aprox. April 12)
Start seeds of early left lettuce, early cabbages including cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi and kale, and small seeded annuals indoors. DIRECT SEED broad beans, carrots, peas, spinach, leaf lettuce, turnips, dill, parsley, and hardy flowers such as alyssum, candytuft, pansies, poppies, snapdragons, stocks, sunflowers and sweet peas. Plant onion sets or transplant onion seedlings outdoors.

4 WEEKS TO LAST FROST (aprox. April 26)
Start melon seeds indoors. If desired, start seeds of late basil, cucumber, squash, pumpkin, large-seeded annuals, and flowering vines indoors in peat pots. DIRECT SEED radishes, beets, cabbages, chard, head lettuce, and flowers such as godetia, hollyhock, and mallow. Plant potato eyes and transplant seedlings of early cabbages, except cauliflower.

2 WEEKS TO LAST FROST (aprox. May 10)
DIRECT SEED corn, tender bulbs such as glads, and annual vines such as morning glory. Transplant early lettuce seedlings.

WEEK OF LAST FROST (aprox. May 17-24)
Around the last frost date you can finally direct seed beans, cauliflower, cucumber, squashes, heat-loving flowers such as zinnias, marigold, and lavatera. Transplant your tomaotes. If you've got them, transplant cauliflower, squash and cucumber seedlings.

1-2 WEEKS AFTER FROST (aprox. May 31-June 7)
Wait for a couple of weeks after the last frost before direct seedling lima benas, soybeans, melons and herbs such as basil, summer savory and sweet marjoram. Transplant celery, melon, peppers, eggplant seedlings when the night temperatures stay well above 10 degrees C. Plant sweet potato slips. Start second crop of kale seedlings, and reseed spinach and peas for second crop.