Won't be long till it's time to start your spring garden

I found this site while looking for a planting schedule for our area. It looks like it has a lot of useful information, as well as planting schedules for the different zones.

http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/

Thanks Sonshine! Yes, I've used this site before. Lots of good reading.
I'm getting ready for the garden. Ordered more heirloom seeds a couple
of weeks ago and hope they make it within the next 4-5 weeks for planting.
Course, I garden all year here in Florida. However I do have a little greenhouse that I grown in during the winter months. Tomatoes, cukes, peppers, lettus, etc. I also use it in the early spring to start seeds. Love being in there in the winter when it chilly and windy outside. Thanks again.

On homesteading today forum there was a lady that started a seed train. I had never heard of them before. Maybe next year this site will pick up and we can try to do something similar here. I got a lot of seeds from it, many that I have never tried to grow, but thought I'd get a few to try.

I plan on starting some tomatoe and pepper seeds within the next week in the house. I have a small green house, but it's not heated, so it's still too cold to try starting anything out there yet.

It is suppose to get down to 38 here tonight and we have had a few nights in the 20's with several frost this year. But with usually sunny or part sunny days, it really heats up in there even on cool days in the 50's. I usually go out about 10 o'clock and open the doors and by 4:00 o'clock I close them up if it is going to be a chilly night. The sun gets a good hour and a half to heat it back up before dark and with the black pots and peat giving off heat during the night, it has provided me with quite a bit of veggies over the winter months. I have tomatoes and peppers blooming, and well as both on growing at present. Like the idea of the seed train.

It's been getting down into the teens and 20's here. Recently it has been getting up to the 40's in the daytime, but without heat in the greenhouse I'd be afraid to put anything out there yet. Fortunately, I have lots of windows and skylights in my house, and we also have some grow lights I use to get my seedlings started.

I like the seed train too, but since we only have about 4 or so regular posters here right now, I'm not sure it would work very well for us. Maybe God will send us more homesteaders and we can try something like that here. I know that last year we do a anything homemade swap and got good participation, but since then we start lagging on folks staying involved here. I'm partially to blame. I had major back surgery in May and wasn't able to get online for quite some time. I'm just now starting to be able to sit up long enough to do any kind of research online.

I actually thought about closing down the site at one time, but was asked to keep it up, and I'm glad I did. I just got discouraged, but since then we have had more people join, so I just keep praying that God will send those who will benefit and share and we can get this forum off the ground.

I'm so glad you didn't close down the site, Sonshine. If you had I wouldn't have found you! I know what you mean about the back surgery. I had back surgery about 15 years ago. Up until then, I was very active in the gym, walking routine and biking. Needless to say, I'm not as active now but do still bike and walk and of course the gardening helps to. We had
thunder storms last yesterday evening with some wind which has made today chilly and still windy. Guess that is better than snow! Oh, and I got
my heirloom seeds in the mail yesterday......so I've been planning the garden in my mind. I'll try to pass this forum to as many of my friends as possible.

Joy, we got a lot of rain yesterday. Today the highs are suppose to be 49 and lows 20.

I'm glad you got your seeds. Do you save seeds from year to year? I started doing that a couple of years ago. Now the only seeds I get are heirlooms. Some of them don't grow as big as the modified seeds, but I know that they'll taste good and that I can save seeds.

Thanks for offering to pass the link to the forum on to others. I would love to see the forum pick up.

These are my first heirloom seeds but plan to start saving this year. That is
why I'm so excited about them. I use to own 6 ac, undercover of commercial greenhouses and grew tropical plants. Most of them were houseplants and lots of 3" material that were bought by truckers that went to florist. I loved the industry but hated working 6-7 days a week!! I had
a one week vacation in the 6 years I had it. My little greenhouse and garden beds are a lot more fun. My mother and grandmother were great gardeners of vegetables and flowers and I must take after them. I went to Lowe's garden center to get a few things and some of their 4" plants had
been damaged from the frost, so I got some really nice planting bed flowers that I will not have any problems reviving in my greenhouse. Cost a
buck a flat; but I actually wanted the 4" pots and trays to start my seed in. So, got two birds for one stone. I was tickled about that. Suppose to get down to 38 here tonight.

I like to start my seeds in toilet paper or paper towel rolls. I cut them into rings, and then clip around the bottom and fold it up to make a little pot. After I put some soil in it, it's ready to use. When it's time to plant it in my garden, I just put the whole thing in. Works out great.

I'm going to try starting my seedlings in egg shell halves this year. I'm going to start saving the shell halves in the egg cartons and dry them in my oven. I read someplace that the extra calcium and minerals from the shells will produce healthier plants. I also remember something about it stopping cut worms or slugs because of the sharp edges on the shells. When I'm ready to transplant, I'll lightly crush the shell so the roots can grow through the bottom of the shells. It will be nice to add the calcium to the garden quicker, eggs shells take a while to break down in my composter. This is where I will be starting ALL of my tomatoes because they NEED extra calcium and magnesium to stop blossom end rot.

I figure if I use the foam egg cartons to hold the seedlings, the water will stay in the carton and keep the seedlings moist. I do have a bunch of the cardboard cartons and I may also start some seedlings in them as well. The cardboard will definitely stay moist and add organic matter to the garden as well. I'll just have to cut an x in the bottom before I fill them with soil so the roots can grow through the bottom.

I never thought of using eggshells. I think I'll try it out. Maybe do half the way I've been doing them and half with eggshells and see if I can tell any difference. Thanks for the idea.

Love the egg carton idea! May have to try some of them myself. I save the
cartons for my egg lady where I get my fresh eggs from but she won't miss a few. Thanks for the idea.