I know the City hasn’t even picked up your Christmas tree yet, and its the dead center of winter, but gardeners, it is time to get busy, so dust off your clogs. The biggest complaint I hear from gardeners, is that they were disorganized or too busy and waited too late to get their garden in.
We are entering a busy planting season now, as it is time to plant Artichokes, Asparagus, Greens, Lettuces, Onions, Radishes and Spinach.
From mid January – February, we will plant Beans, Beets, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbge, Carrots, Cauliflower, Chard, Collards, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leeks, Lettuce, Mustard, Potatoes, Spinach and Turnips.
The tricky thing here is to manage your space requirements with the Spring planting season quickly approaching. You don’t want to fill your future tomato space with slow growing onions in mid-February, so read your seed packets, plant the above early and start looking forward to the Spring garden.
Somehow the brutal Summer is gone from my memory, and my mind is constantly filled with memories of the best Spring tomato garden I’ve ever had. I started seeds indoors early, and took a risk of frost and set the transplants in the garden early, and that, along with heavily amended soil, paid off.
I currently have 3 beds filled with onions, leeks and garlic, to be harvested in time for the later Spring/Summer vegetables like Peppers, Squash, Watermelons and Cucumbers. My favorite tomato bed is partially occupied with onions that I’ll harvest late February as Spring onions. I’ve just reseeded for lettuce which will be harvested all throughout February. The remaining broccoli will be harvested in the coming 3 weeks and allowed to rest until tomato time. The two strawberry beds will host their strawberries through Spring.
I have ordered Basil, Cilantro, Dill, Slenderette Bush Beans, Casino Corn, Lemon Cucumber, Slicer Cucumber, Rainbow Sherbet Watermelon, Sugar Snap Peas, Snow Peas, Tomatillos and a Pepper blend from Renees Garden Seeds. www.reneesgarden.com
I ordered Ace 55, Aunt Ginny’s Purple Heirloom Tomato, Beefsteak Heirloom, Black Cherry, Black Krim, Cherokee Chocolate and Cherokee Purple Tomato Seeds from Tomatofest. www.tomatofest.com I intend to start the tomatoes from seed indoors around the 20th of January. As I do every year, I’ll pick up tomato and pepper transplants throughout the season at the Sunshine Community Garden Plant sale (first Saturday in March), and at nurseries around town. I never rely on my early planted seeds only.
That’s my plan. I’d love to hear yours!
Thanks for sharing. I’m going full steam ahead on tomatoes this year. I was able to make a few jars of marinara last year and now that I know I can do it, I plan on canning alot of sauce. From Baker’s Creek, I going with Amish Paste and Jersey Giant for sauces. Black Krim and Black Early are my current pics for slicers. I’ll probably add some cherry tomatoes. See, there I go…so many choices, so liitle space.
I think this Spring-like weather has me extra amped up for tomatoes. Thanks for your comment!
I love when you share these guidelines! I’ve neglected my garden for the past 4 months, and I’d love to get back in there and actually grow something for once instead of just watching everything wilt in the heat.
You can get back in there, Julie! Thanks for the kind comment.
This is fantastic information!! Thank You
I’m going to try to get a jump on tomatoes this year and avoid the disaster of last years tomato broiling heat. I just bought a 4×4 popup greenhouse and hope that will give me the edge on early tomatoes here in South Austin. And…thanks for the planting suggestions.
Nice to be here. Very interesting