Spring Teaser

This isn't a Friday Favorite, but it could be. This week we had snow on Saturday night and then a few days later we had two days of weather in the 70's.  A Spring teaser of  70+ degree weather in February is always a favorite!!

This week is 10 weeks before our last frost in our area.

I took advantage of the lovely weather to plant Celery and Summer Savory seeds in seed trays on my potting bench. No mess in the house to clean up!

 I planted Utah Celery from Pinetree Seeds  and Summer Savory from Botanical Interests .

I'm new to Botanical Interests and I am very impressed with their service, their seeds and their packaging.  You can see on the Pinetree Seed package all the information they give you. (I love Pinetree Seeds and mean no disrespect to them - they are a great seed company!) The Botanical Interests seed package has so much more information including detailed instructions on when and how to start seeds, special germination instructions, a description of the variety, what it is used for, a plant tag and that's just on the outside! Inside the pack they have the history of the plant, botanical facts, recipes, how to avoid diseases and pests - it's impressive!  All their seeds are GMO free and untreated. They were offering free shipping during February - bonus! My order arrived quickly and included a free pack of Mesclun seeds!  I'm going to plant them in a flat under my lights and see if I can grow a salad or two indoors!

 I have never grown celery before. From what I've read, they can be difficult. I have memories of riding through Lancaster County years ago and seeing the Amish gardens with white paper wrapped around the celery to blanch it. Utah is supposed to be self blanching, but I have also read the taste is more celery like if the plants don't blanch. It's an experiment. We'll see how it goes.

I planted twelve celery plants and twelve summer savory. They need light to germinate so they went into my grow room under the lights.

Of course I got out in the garden. I have heard it is damaging to the soil to prepare it too early, but I still pulled out weeds, cleaned up my Asparagus bed and added compost and bone meal, moved some dirt and had very dirty hands for two days - I loved it! 

February came back with rainy cool temperatures so I took care of my leek seedlings in the grow room.

These leeks were planted January 22 and were about 6 inches tall and floppy. Leeks and onions have a hard time getting rid of their seeds; those are the black dots on the tops of the leeks in the photo above. I took scissors and gave them a haircut, cutting them all to 3 inches tall and cutting off any seeds in those smaller than 3". This will help them put more growth into the base so they thicken up and get strong. They, and the onions I planted, will get regular haircuts to keep them strong.

As a bonus, the leek clippings can be used as a garnish in eggs, potatoes or other dishes. It's like my first harvest of 2018 😉!