Sunday, March 29, 2009

March 22 Seed Starts

The first wave of seedlings are the cold-weather varieties, listed here by proper name and, while you're checking, for sale to anyone in the Chicago area who wants to come by.

Bruce has done a superb job of nurturing these babies to robust young adulthood. Check 'em out: Russian white kale, mixed mustard, and (yeah, it's my favorite because of its name and kick-ass bite) wrinkled/crinkled/crumpled cress.
We even have rosemary starts (upper right) and understand this plant is difficult to grow from seed. It sits on the tray with lovage, sorrel, and colorful fetal chard.
These cold-weather lovers include broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and collards.

Look at the roots on these kale--long and healthy and more than ready to go into a two-bucket sub irrigated planter (SIP).
This year I'm lucky to be getting a very early start on planting. Mr H2 gifted me with a cool little greenhouse for my birthday, and I've been up there happily planting up the SIPs and letting them acclimate inside. A good thing too. Check out our March 29 on-site Chicago weather:
Won't be long before we can move the planted SIPs outside the greenhouse to flourish in the 35-55 degree temps.

2 comments:

Greenscaper said...

Most impressive! I learn a lot from you folks. Have fun with your new greenhouse. Snow?!!!! Doesn't the Chicago greenhouse fairy know it's spring?

H2 said...

Spring is here for certain now, Bob. The talented one installed an exhaust fan to vent the 90-degree temps we get when it's sunny. We sealed this greenhouse well--maybe too well?

The cold-weather starts would love to be outside, but it's still dipping below freezing. I think next week we'll move them out. In the interim, the greenhouse has been an ideal place to set up the SIPs without wind or rain annoyances.