Asleep in the Snow

Here we are nearly in 2023. When I was a kid I never thought i would ever be living in the 21st century. Here we are nearly in 2023. When I was a kid I certainly never thought I would ever be this old and living in the 21st century. Well I made it and am certainly glad the Lord has put me on this earth for all of those years. Hopefully, I will be able to be here for many more years to come.

The garden behind the church is sleeping now. Putting together the energy to bring forth a bumper crop of veggies for the summer of 2023. While the garden has been sleeping the gardener has been busy. The seeds are all selected for 2023. Some will go into the “ground” as early as January 28th of 2023. That is the first planting for all of you curious people. We will plant petunias and lobelia that day. 

These will go in the baskets we hang on the south side of the fence. We will plant two trays of petunias and two of lobelia. The petunias will be a mix of red, white, and blue. The lobelia will be blue and purple. I always look forward to putting the first seeds in the ground. It will be exciting for the congregation to watch the first planting begin to grow. About mid March, maybe earlier, we will transplant them into “larger” quarters and there they will await the move to the outside in the middle of May.

Keep an eye out for those first green shoots in the narthex in February. Be safe and may the Lord watch over you each and every day.

How Much Seed Do I Need?

How much seed do you need to plant a 10 foot row or a 100 foot row for that matter? I had no idea, people have really worked this out. Please don't laugh too hard, I was new at this. At least one seed catalog I received this year has that information. I'm sure most of the others do as well. I had just never looked for the information. In the 2021 catalog from Johnny's Selected Seeds there is a chart on page four.

You can call the seed companies and they will be ahppy to tell you especially if you order from them. There are a number of web sites that have the information you can use your favorite search engine to find different ones if you like. You will need to be careful though as a lot of the charts you find on the web are for farmers and they only talk about seeds per acre. Seeds per 100 foot row are easy to break down into smaller units, however, seeds per acre is much tougher. I was surprised by the number of seeds needed. The chart at the right comes from Johnny's  Selected Seeds catalog.

Here are just a few examples of seeding requirements for a 100 foot row. It takes 800 beans to seed a 100 foot row, 1500 beet seeds, 3000 carrot seeds (sounds like a lot), 1.25 pounds of peas, 1.5 ounces of radish seed and a third of a ounce of turnip seeds. Turnip seeds are really small and light. Planting will be so much easier this spring. Or I should say knowing how much seed to purchase will be easier.

Most of the sites give the information and I think assume that you have a planter and are not doing it by hand. Obviously they are also set up for use in the lower 48 states.

Many of the seeding suggestions just will not fly in Alaska for planting in an outdoor garden. Things like squash will never mature if you direct seed them. The soil is way too cool for them to germinate unless maybe if you put clear visqueen over the row. That being said, you should be willing to experiment with "marginal" species. You might live in a micro-climate within our zone 4 area. Yup, most of Anchorage is classified as zone 4b. But be careful, there are places in town, especially on the east side that are probably lower.

If you are going to try to grow fruit trees, yes they grow here, be sure they are grafted to root stock that is hardy to zone 3. Pears will grow just fine when grafted to crab apple root stock. Be sure to find out what the root stock is before you buy or plant.

To Direct Seed or Not?

Should I start the seeds indoors or direct seed them when the temperatures warm up? This question has posed a conundrum for gardeners forever. There are some things that you must direct seed because they do not transplant well at all. Generally crops with long taproots that are the crop like carrots and parsnips should be direct seeded.

If you are going to grow peppers you will need to start them inside or in a heated greenhouse by the beginning of February or at least the first of March. You can transplant them into covered beds and they will do fine outside after the danger of frost is history. I usually grow three or four types of chiles. Some years they do better than other depending on the weather.

Leeks and bulb onions need to be started in February as well. There is not a problem with transplanting. If you try direct seeding you will get green onions from both but not much more. Green or bunching onions should be direct seeded but in raised beds of some type. Putting them in the flat ground has not worked well for me. I think the soil is too cold even though onions to well in cool conditions. If you are going to do bulb onions be sure to get long day varieties. I have experimented with bulb onions with little success but they are so tasty I still trying to get something that will work. You may have better success in the interior because of the "hotter" summers.

Carrots, these orange beauties do not transplant well. If you try, you will get really gnarly roots. For some reason transplanted carrots just don't do well. If you get really strange shaped roots it's usually because they have been disturbed during growth somewhere along the line. Most people think the "unique" shaped roots are because of rocky ground or some such but usually because of cultivation or hand weeding the roots were messed with and go bonkers. So direct seed carrots and try not to disturb the roots.

Most types of beans should be put directly in the ground. Beans will germinate faster if you soak the seeds in water about 24 hours before you plant. They don't like to have their roots disturbed. If you must transplant them start them in individual pots and try to disturb the roots as little as possible. Bush beans and "pole" beans fall into this category.

Squash is sensitive, too. I have tried many different things to make them grow better. It turns out you will get the earliest harvest by starting the seeds in small pots first. Usually two to three weeks before you want them to go into the ground. So no earlier than the first week of May, When you transplant once again try to disturb the roots as little as possible. There is another way as well. Put your say zucchini seeds between two wet paper towels. Cover them. Put them in a plastic bag or wrap them in cellophane. Then leave them in a warm place for a week. The seeds will sprout. Once sprouted you can plant them in the soil and they will do fine. The sprouted seeds will be behind the transplants about two weeks. After that you won't be able to tell which were which.

Just about all of the brassicas can be direct seeded. Again things like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli  will harvest a little later. This type of crop transplants very well. They can be put in the ground before the danger of a light frost has past. They are tough. They can take a beating. Just remember those little plants grow to be very large. Plant them at least 24" apart.

No need to start peas. You can put them in the ground as soon as you can work the soil. They will germinate faster if you soak them in water for a day before you plant. Make sure you have something for them to "climb" on. It makes harvesting much easier.

Most everything else that can be direct seeded should go in the ground by the middle of May. There is always an exception and in this case it's lettuce. You need to direct seed this crop but not until after the danger of frost is well past. In Anchorage and south central Alaska that usually after Memorial Day.

Have fun! See you in the garden!