Pre-Season Planting

Pre-Season Planting

There’s a lot of stuff going in the ground. Last week on the “root crop day” I planted beets, carrots, radishes and onion sets again. On the 8th (above ground day) I planted spinach, arugula, mesclun mix, kale, romaine, mustard and turnips. My grapevines and asparagus crowns came in yesterday and today (the 12th) is “transplant day” so in the ground they go. I dug humongous holes for the grapevines yesterday and a long trench for the asparagus. Today it is rainy and miserable; but this is the last day of February for transplanting.

The 8th was also a transplant day and I transplanted a few things in the greenhouse. Here’s a little update on the planting mediums. I planted in soil in cups, jiffy pots and rockwool. The rockwool got the best germination. The soil in cups grows best. I also planted some leftover cabbage seeds in an old aluminum pie plate. That was fantastic. We learn from experience. I don’t expect to start many more seeds this year. I want to try egg cartons next. I may start something just for the heck of it to see how they work.

Spinach and onion sets from an earlier planting are up. My three bins of compost turned into 2 ¾ when I turned it Sunday. I need some stuff to put in the grapevine holes; but the compost isn’t ready. I will buy some earthworm castings and mix that and phosphate rock and lime in with the dirt that came from the holes. I will just mix the earthworm casting for the asparagus. The dirt at the bottom of the grapevine holes tested at between 5.9 and 6.3 for ph which is the very lower limit for grapes. Hopefully the lime will bring it up a little.






David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.