Herbs/Vegetables Are Sprouting!

• Herb Update

In my February 9th, 2014 post (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/02/planting-herbsmore-bird-photos.html), I described how I planted some herbs including basil, chives and parsley.
I wanted to replace the herb plants from several years ago, which were starting to show their age and weren't too healthy anymore.

Unfortunately, the basil and chives seeds I used were two or three years old, and didn't germinate very well. The parsley seeds, however, I bought new since I was out of them.  I broke my own rule of thumb of never using seeds that are more than one year old.  Actually, this was a good test of my theory.  The parsley, which I planted on February 12th, is coming nicely:

Parsley

Now that I have replanted the basil and chives (planted March 4th) , they are starting to sprout:

Basil

• Vegetable Update

In my March 8th, 2014 post (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/03/its-time-to-start-some-vegetables.html), I described how I planted onions, scallions, and leeks indoors.  The seeds were actually planted on the 4th of March.

The seeds are sprouting nicely, and will quickly be on their way:

Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions

As the weather slowly warms up over the next few weeks (hopefully), I will be able to put the onions, scallions, and leek plants outside in my mini greenhouse.   The greenhouse I have is similar to the one shown below:

This can be used even if daytime temperatures are in the 40's, especially if the sun is shining.  The temperature inside the greenhouse in those conditions will be in the 60's.  Usually early in the season however, the plants have to be brought inside at night as temperatures often dip below freezing.

More on the greenhouse in future posts.

Until next time.