Carrots, onions, tatsoi, pak choi, all in the ground today.

I like gardening best when I am the planner and Chuck does the work. However, this year I've vowed to shoulder my share of the responsibilities, even if it means getting dirt under my fingernails.
Over the weekend I built a very small raised bed for my carrots, and I planted 2 rows today. I'll plant another row every other week, so we should have carrots maturing most of the season. It's still pretty cool here- we were in the 40's today, and our average date for last frost is April 15.

Carrot bed

I also planted my Asian greens- a double row of Tatsoi, and a double row of Pak Choi. They will get thinned down to 1 plant per 6 inch block. The thinnings will be tasty!

I also planted a row each of red scallions and white. We bought a tool to help us plant out tiny seeds- it's shown on the top of the seed packets in the top picture.

carrot bed with onions behind them

My little tomato, pepper, basil and squashes are looking pretty good under the lights.

Growing Challenge- Seed to Seed- Baby Plants

It's been 3 weeks and a couple days since the sowing of seeds. Almost everything has come up well. The exceptions- absolutely NO Ancho chiles came up- I planted 16- and just a few- between 3 and 6- Thai round eggplant came up- planted 16 of those as well.

The Red Kuri Squash are looking wonderful; they are getting true leaves. Everything else still has cotyledon leaves (the first leaves to show up when a seed sprouts.) I actually planted the squash a little too early, and hope that they don't outgrow my space before I can set them outside. Our average last frost date is April 15, still just over a month away.
We have 2 fluorescent fixtures, each with two 32 watt bulbs. The lights are on between 14 and 16 hours a day. I am thinking of getting another fixture and 2 more bulbs. I also have a small fan that I turn on and off at random- it helps keep molds down, and the air blowing against the small stems of the plants helps make them stockier. I also run a cool mist humidifier for a few hours every other day or so.


I am a little concerned about the electricity use. I do have a greenhouse window off the garage, and I may move them down to that when the weather warms up a little. It has a breach in it and too much cold air comes in. Alternatively, I may build some cold frames in the backyard. We have plenty of cinderblocks, and I think we have some old windows. I would actually like a permanent coldframe for to extend the harvest of lettuces.

Read more about The Growing Challenge on One Green Generation here