I don’t have a lot of experience, but I’m starting to think that gardening is mostly an exercise in patience. I remember when Mark and I first decided we were going to start gardening, we were so excited. Even though it was January, we were at Home Depot picking out our seed packets and trays. Once we got them home and made a plan of when to start each seed, it was a lot of waiting.
Finally, over the course of more than a month, we got all those veggie seeds in the starter mix, according to the schedule suggested on the seed packets. Then, we waited some more.
Oh! We have little seedlings! We made sure to get them some, but not too much water, plus plenty of light. We waited and watched them grow. When they got big enough, we potted some of them up into larger containers. We’ve been hardening them off outside for a week or two, when it’s not freezing out. But that’s the problem. It’s still freezing out. We live in Plant Hardiness Zone 6b, which means that our average last frost date is somewhere around April 30th.
Peep some tiny little carrot seedlings growing in one of our outdoor beds!
Now yes, we are planting some crops that are considered to be cold hardy. Peas, potatoes, and carrots, primarily. But you best believe those are already outside (don’t remind me that it’s going down to 32 degrees tonight and 34 on Wednesday night, and I’ll probably be out there covering my little babies with garbage bags to protect them). The rest of the plants, things like squash, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs, are not supposed to go outside until after the last risk of frost. And some of them really shouldn’t even go outside until the soil temperature is 50ish degrees. So we wait.
Social media is both helpful and dangerous. We’re seeing gardeners pulling beautiful harvests right now, and we haven’t even gotten our plants in the ground! But those people are either much farther south than us, or have some kind of magical powers that we don’t (yet). So while it feels like we’re way behind the curve, I’d rather have a kitchen counter full of live seedlings than a garden bed full of dead ones.
So we wait 🙂
Mark & Beth's Homegrown Adventure 