Spring Garden Planting

I've started some thing quite early, but there is a method to my madness. One thing that I learned last year is that the heat here in Texas can be so intense, that most things will just stop producing in July and August. So my main goal is for my crops to mostly be done by mid-July. That not only helps them avoid the hottest part of  the summer, but I get to avoid it too! Some days I would have to wait until almost 8:00 pm before it was cool enough to go out and do gardening chores.

So let's take a look at how the Spring Garden is fairing so far:

I had two little helpers eager to help me fill all the cavities with soiless seed starting mix. They were slow, but they did a good job, vacuumed up the small mess they made, and they were free!

Now the celled-flats were ready for planting and planting we did.

The Marigold and Nasturium and Borage are all being used as companion plants. I'll let you know if there work or not. The zinna is for the flower garden.

These are the 2nd and 3rd flats that I have planted thus far. Some of the plantings in the first flat are ready for their first move.

The top row is broccoli, broccoli, celery, cabbage/cauliflower and the bottom row is empty, leeks (that haven't germinated after two weeks), one column of artichokes--two already transplanted and the 3rd was reseeded two weeks ago), then two rows of Cherokee Purple tomato and the last set is 2 varieties of lettuce. I have started setting this flat outdoors to acclimate them...except the tomatoes of course.

The tomatoes were transplanted into these cups and they are now sitting on a window seal. The one overgrown broccoli shown above was also tranplanted into one of these cups. The other broccoli is so far behind because the overgrown one was planted two weeks before they were. It was the only broccoli that survived the legginess. All the others I pulled out and reseeded because they were too leggy.

The two celled-flats are sitting under lights on the new bar we just finished for our bedroom.