Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My plans for June are beets, carrots, kale, garlic and maaaaybe rutabaga. I might go for a butternut in the spot where my watermelon failed, too. This is my first year gardening from seed so I'm really nervous. What are your plans?

I love gardening from seed! It feels more legit somehow, and I love seeing the little green shoots break up the soil and pop up all happy and ready to grow. I planted from seed three weeks ago, but this crazy weather we've been having put the brakes on, and everything is just now starting to come up: a million kinds of lettuce, kale, spinach, armenian cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelon, pole beans, hakurei turnips (!!!), beets, zucchini, yellow squash, and something else that I forgot to mark but is viney.

I am impressed that you can plant garlic in the summertime where you are! You're supposed to do it late fall or early spring here and I never have my act together in time.

Um, I have no idea if I can, I just am! I agree about the legit.

This weekend we are planting our second round of cucumbers and green beans and squash. I need to pick up more basil seeds and plant those also!

Isa, I think you could benefit from the Uni of Illinois' "Watch your garden grow" website. They have a vegetable directory that tells you when to plant, how long until harvest, care-taking, and etc.


Edit: Oh, and I started a bell pepper plant from seed, in addition to the onions I planted from old cores out of my kitchen. My parents' farm currently has cukes & yellow summer squash which they happily share with me. Full-blown NC tomato season is soon to arrive. I am stoked for the ruby reds!

I started satsuki midori cucumbers, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, genovese basil, opal basil, cosmos and zinnias from seed indoors and have transplanted them all, then I stuck some scarlet runner beans, purple pole beans, yellow bush beans, nasturtiums and sunflower seeds in the ground last weekend. In the past, I bought lots of these varieties already started, and I'm surprised that so far my starters seem to actually be working as well as the nursery bought ones! It's always kind of surreal to me to think that I started something from seed that will eventually (with amazing luck) be giving me real food.

I'm growing radishes, chives, dill, swiss chard, and mesclun mix from seed this year! They are doing really well so far, lots of little sprouts abound. It makes me so happy! The baby swiss chard is SO CUTE.

I echo Fascist's sentiments. Get a hold of a good ag school and look at what and when to plant your veggie desires.

http://www.lawn-and-gardening-tips.com/ ... zones.html

This is Indiana's planting schedule, and as I figure--Nebraska should be in the same zone:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/hort/ext/Pubs/ho/HO_186.pdf

We have some fun things popping up from seed finally too. Baby chards--yes, they are the cutest paprikapapaya! Little turnips, bok choy, canellini beans, basil, cress, dino kale, speckled butterhead lettuce, cilantro...man it is all so pretty. Last July I planted garlic in the corners of the garden and they are really shooting up now. Hopefully I'll have a bunch of bulbs to harvest in a month or so. This weekend we thinned out some of the stuff and made a delicious salad out of it, everything was so fresh and crisp. yummy!

I planted (all seeds) blue lake pole beans, rocky baby cucumbers, and belgian endives on Monday.
I still need to plant squash, nasturtiums & sunflowers.

A few months ago I direct seeded sweet peas, turnips, carrots, radishes, lettuce and cabbage. I already harvested the radishes, the cabbage needs to be picked this week, and the lettuce is almost there. The sweet peas didn't do so hot - I think they didn't get enough sun where I planted them, so they're pretty short. I'll probably get a small harvest in a few weeks. The turnips are growing nicely, but the carrots got overtaken by weeds. :-( I planted a ton, but only have about 10 growing. I need to plant a second row.

I'm all set with the garden for now. I'm a little behind with peppers and tomatoes, but I'm pretty sure the midwest will have a longer growing season this year. Near the end of gardening season, I'm going to try to grow some stuff from clones. It's faster than starting from seed AND you get the exact DNA from the plant you love. So for example, if there's a tomato or pepper you just cannot live without in the winter--you can make it live during the winter indoors via cloning from a cutting.

I don't know how the climate or growing season is where you live but it'd say that it could be too late for garlic and the butternut.
I got the best results with garlic when I started with cloves in october or november, and perhaps that for the butternut you could be better of with buying a seedling or small plant at a garden center?

Beets, carrots (depending on variety) and kale should work.

That's why cloning is so awesome. If you have a late start on certain plants, you can always clone those. I don't think bulbs are good ones to clone, but you can always plant garlic in the fall for a harvest next spring.

I planted mesclun mix, spinach, sorrel, mizuna, ruby chard, tarragon, basil, chives, and flat leaf parsley in containers yesterday. My marjoram, oregano, and one adorable sage plant over-wintered. I'm considering buying a tomato plant, but I don't think I get enough sun on my balcony.