If you are a beginner at gardening, consider yourself lucky. Anything you throw at your soil will grow. Forget about warm season - cold season rules, just plant and it will reward your efforts with some awesome fruit. If you are a veteran, and want to experiment with a new type of vegetable or a new variety, plant away, it will be forgiving and cooperative. February and March are our paradise. This is when we think we live in a no-fault all-success garden heaven. But let's go back to the earthly rules for a minute.
Warm season vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant should be seeded by now. In South Florida it is too late to start these from seed, you will have to buy transplants. In Central and Northern Florida we still have the last call of seeding our tomatoes for the Summer harvest. I seeded my tomatoes about a month ago, and have transplanted them into the individual cups already:
Now, man cannot live on tomatoes alone, so I am keeping seeding my herbs, broccoli, lettuce and other short-bearing cold season vegetables throughout February.
You can seed directly into the garden these vegetables: corn, beans, cucumbers, squash, radish, okra, potatoes, broccoli, and any of the short season varieties of cabbage, carrot, beet, onion and herbs. Just make sure you keep the ground moist and apply plenty of fertilizer, and you practically cannot go wrong.
Do you make your own seed starting mix or do you have a particular brand that you like?
ReplyDeleteIt is one of my dreams to make my own seedling mix, but, alas, lagging on a compost production now. I use Miracle Gro Potting Mix (not soil, mix) - it is very fluffy and gentle on seeds and seedlings alike. And a 2cf bag (heavy!) is only about $11 or so at WalMart. That bag goes a long way.
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