1st Day of Spring

I suppose it is apropos that I finally began working on my veggie beds on the first day of Spring.  I started seeds back on January 31 in a 36-cell seed tray on my dining room table with a heating pad underneath.  Very little came up, which didn't surprise me since I've not had good luck starting seeds in the past.  So, on February 21st I tried again, but this time I put the seed trays outside on my front porch.  My front porch faces south so it gets plenty of sun even during the winter.  Halleluiah! I got seedlings!

It looks like I'll have 12 tomato plants, 3 black-eye peas, two each of cucumbers, okra, and bell peppers, and one jalapeño plant.  Plus two dill (for pickles) and two luffa vines.  Three of the onion seeds sprouted plus I have five onion starts that I got from the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange booth at the Mother Earth's News Fair in Belton in February.  And for fun I started three each Erlene's Green cotton and Nankeen brown cotton. The biggest crop I started was corn - 42 corn seed/kernels.  And that brings me to this morning when I transplanted twenty-one 6-8 inch corn stalks into my backyard veggie bed.  There are 11 more that have sprouted but I want to wait until they're little larger to transplant them, maybe in a week or two.  Funny thing is, I only have room for those 11 - if the other ten come up, I don't know where I'll put them!

I realize this sounds rather puny for a spring vegetable garden, but I only have about 170 square feet to grow anything in and that's divided into four beds.  I've spent hours and hours trying to figure out where everything will go, trying to keep plant families together and not putting any specific veggie where it was planted last year.  I'll direct seed carrots and radishes next week when I have their bed ready to go.  And I'm going to have to grow my potatoes and peanuts in containers since there's no room for them anywhere else.  I suppose I'm fortunate that the Kentucky Wonder green beans didn't sprout! 

I'm excited about this year's garden.  Currently I work just three days each week so I should have plenty of time to keep up with it, 'should' being the operative word.  This is my training, for when I have my 2-3 acres and have a much larger garden.  I need to know not just how to do this, but that I CAN do this.  This year will tell, and since I hope to have my land by summer of next year, I hope it all works out.

My next post will be about the other veggie beds and what's in them.  Until then, never give up, never surrender, and may all your dreams come true.