YES – it is, once again, that time of year that we are all thinking “WHEN IS THIS COLD GOING TO END?” However, there are a ton of us that are not thinking that. Instead we are thinking “HOW MANY MORE DAYS TILL SPRING?” Our house is even counting the days to our normal last frost. Reason being – SEED STARTING.
Getting magazine, after magazine, after magazine, AFTER magazine (you get the picture) since before Halloween last year (oh yes – that is when the first one showed up warning us of impending doom if we do not order before the first of the year? –REALLY?). Filling our heads with visions of daffodils instead of sugar plums at Christmas. Warming our hearts during the coldest New Year’s Eve parties with planting zone predictions.
Yep, got the bug really bad this year! The last 2 years were just too rough (read previous blogs for more info) for this optimist dreamer to even fathom decent gardens. Well, get ready for me dirt – cuz here I come!!
I will be yanking on weeds, showering you with great composted fertilizer mixes and setting you up on the best companion planting dates I can put together! We have been saving egg shells and coffee grounds by the pounds, ready to mingle into your warmth.
Even though we still have snow on the ground, and temps at night below freezing – beware! We are getting ready to attack! So gardens, prepare for an outbreak of major spring fever that will knock your socks (ok, so they don’t really have socks) off!
We have several new ideas in our plans in our arsenal for starting seeds this year. I will be watching (and taking pics and notes) you gardens – very VERY closely – to know when you are best prepared. So let the seed starting games begin!
HELBERG FARM STORIES 
Some of us are still asking if winter is going to START… Let alone end. >.>
Still… I got loads of stuff planned and just waiting for the seasons… If I have learned anything from gardening its patience… I wait for nature… NOT the other way around!
Also… Is it just me or does Snoopy have a very strangely positioned tulip in that bottom picture? B-)
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Maybe they were all out of fig leaves. 😉
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HAHAHA!
Yeah. B-)
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LOL – didn’t notice the flowers-LOL oops oh well!?! We have to start some here at different times – never know when the last frost will be, and since we have a greenhouse, always putting something different in there (we have in-ground plots). Thank you for sharing!!
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We are planning on starting some seeds inside again this year, but a little earlier. I didn’t think to start the sweet peppers inside until late April. I got the seeds from peppers we bought at the store. So towards the end of the growing season I saved some back in an envelope for this spring. I also saved some green pepper seeds from one that a neighbor gave us in exchange for all the cucumbers we had given him. 😀
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That late?
I was told to start them and of Feb for most peppers and chillies so they get a good head start. I started them very early as out winter here is a figment of someones imagination. >.>
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Careful – you are talking pepper & chillies – hot weather plants. I am talking broccoli, cabbage, spinach etc – cold weather plants. We also start our chillies, peppers, tomatoes etc now also, not just the flowers. But my sister found some new flowers for using in dried flower crafting that need to be started way early.
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We cant do our peppers (hot weather plants ) so late – have to start seeds by Feb. if we want a good crop. Will do some later for the greenhouse so they last until Christmas. – thanx Arlene!
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I love seed sharing and seed saving! Most of what we are starting this week are flowers (take longer on some). We are also doing an experiment. Never used heat mats before – gonna set up 2 trays, same stuff, under same conditions – EXCEPT – one will be on top of a heat mat. I will get pics of our process and let you know how it goes?! Thank you for reading & sharing my silly thoughts!!
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Is your greenhouse heated at all?
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Just with little space heaters in appropriate areas. We work under Elliot Coleman’s Winter Harvest (and Four Season Garden) method(s)..The roof is double 6-ply plastic so it absorbs and holds all kinds of heat from our sunny days (can be only 30 out side but if it is sunny, will get to 60+degrees (F) by midday). It is 3ft under ground with burmed up sides (check out my blogs from the beginning – I took tons of pics and showed step-by-step/stages on building it. Now the only heat we use is for keeping herbs through the winter, also a strawberry bed -everbearing- and starting seeds will be its own special plot. everything else just goes with the flow, sometimes with extra row covers on really freezing nights. We actually have a harder time cooling than heating. Thanx for reading and asking!
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I love the pictures in the your post and your writing style is fantastic. What zone do you live in? I never seem to get my seeds started at the right time. I over-compensate for last year’s errors and I’m in a cycle of starting too late or too early. I would love suggestions on how to break this cycle and find the perfect seed starting time. ~lisa
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Thank you for the nice compliment Lisa! Let me see if I can help you. We live in zone 5 (Northeastern Colorado) (used to live in WI – brrr ha ha). Your seed starting depends on several things:
1) WHAT ARE YOU PLANTING? This is a biggie since some plants take longer, some don’t like even a bit of frost etc…so, we start with the things that take the longest to grow (except corn, we still do it the old-fashioned way..in ground..so we wait till about mid April before planting those seeds – they can handle the milder bits of frost at that time.)
2) Does the plant like to get warm, cool, or cold? If warm then you have to wait to plant outside till you’re sure all frost is done. If cool is ok (like the corn) then you can plan on putting stuff in from mid april to mid june. If it likes cold – start your seeds NOW (which is the 2nd batch we are doing)! By the time your seeds become seedlings, it should be ok to put them outside (make sure you “harden off” – let me know if you don’t know what that is.).
3) bit of helpfulness to share is – do you have a special place just for starting your seeds? AND – can you seed start in that area at any time? There are some things like you may want to start 1 week now, wait a week and do a 2nd start, wait a week and do a 3rd start – this is most helpful if you like to just eat what you produce as it will be ready in cycles.
Hope this helped – glad to answer any other questions for you if I can!
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It is hard to control Spring Fever if you garden. We always get Spring Fever too early and often plant too early and then replant. lol My husband does that more than I do. Good luck on starting seeds, my husband will be in that process before long.
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LOL Thank you Lizzie! We are lucky cuz we also have our greenhouse that we plant in (all in-ground plots, nothing on tables) just incase we start too soon. But we have gotten pretty good at our timing – most times. LOL
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