For those of you who read the Spring 2014 issue of The Local Biz Magazine, you might recall that I wrote an article titled, “The Urge To Plant Early? Why Not Grow Seedlings Indoors?” This article was written well in advance of spring – I’m talking January here—and showed simple and cost-effective ways to grow vegetable seedlings indoors.

…Here’s the thing though. It’s hard to write a seasonal article when we’re not in that season. C’est la vie though in the publication world. The problem is if you wait until the season hits to write an article, it won’t get published until after the season has passed. Defeats the purpose, right? But Newsfeedging is different. Newsfeedging allows you to talk about things in real time. So since the weather has FINALLY warmed up (Mother’s Day weekend you can’t deny was gorgeous!) and people are in garden mode, now is the perfect time to give you an update on how our seedlings faired this year!

My husband and I planted tomato and pepper seedlings this year on March 15. In less than a week, our tomato seedlings started to sprout. Our pepper seedlings followed two weeks later. Since that time, our tomato seedlings grew quite fast and were ready to be transplanted to our garden by end of April, even though it was still too cold to plant outside. Our pepper plants matured slowly, but perfectly in time to be transplanted to our garden this past weekend. (The picture above is what our pepper seedlings looked like when we transplanted them outdoors. If you can imagine, the tomato plants were twice as tall and falling over!)

Based on how our seedlings matured this year, we’ve decided that next year, we will still plant our pepper seeds in March, but will postpone our tomato seeds to April and see what happens. As mentioned in the magazine article, experience will tell you how early you need to start planting. What works for one gardener in one house, may not necessarily work for another.  You may not get the timing right the first time, but you’ll eventually figure out what works for you.

I should mention too, that in addition to planting a variety of tomato and pepper seedlings, we also planted buttercup and butternut squash, yellow and green zucchini, swiss chard, spinach, green onions, fava beans, snow peas, brussel sprouts, arugula, radish, basil and lettuce. …There are only two of us in our house, but we have a garden that will feed a family of 10! I know—it’s crazy!

Now that all our plants are in, the rain we are expected to get all week (yes—all week!) will help them develop, and in a few weeks time we will be rewarded with the fruits of our labour! I’ll update you at some point during the summer on our plants progress. Now onto our next project—the front flower garden!

About the Author

Wendy Chiavalon is the Editor-in-Chief of The Local Biz Magazine. She lives in Ajax with her family. She loves watching Pixar movies, salsa dancing, road trips and of course, baking and eating cakes (who wouldn’t)?! In her spare time, she doubles as a cake decorator, baking and decorating cakes and other goodies for special occasions. You can check out some of her work at www.wendyscakeshoppe.com and follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wendyscakeshoppe