Going out on a limb

Well, I may be wrong about an early Spring. I am looking at long range forecasts through early March, and it looks like the current trend will stay, at least through then.

So I have decided today to go out and plant frost tolerant plants, direct seeding. I will be putting out tons of Alaska peas, onions to fill in the spots where some of my fall planted onions got eaten by bunnies, leeks, watercress, carrots, and I am going to start my eggplants and some potato seeds inside. I've never started potatoes from actual seeds before, so this should be interesting.

I am hoping that we don't get any more freezing weather, which we shouldn't, but we will of course get plenty of frost, so I will reevaluate on March first what the forecast looks like, and maybe start planting early. I have a lot of seed that's getting older that needs to get planted out anyway, so I may start with those seeds, overseeding a bit just to be sure I get germination.

In trying to decide between transplanting and direct seeding, I have always started seed inside in early spring, and know how those seedlings fare. So this year I thought I'd try direct seeding outside while it's still cool. Germination will be lower, but the quality of the surviving plants will be much higher than transplanted seedlings, and they will produce better.

Keeping my fingers crossed. Lots of new experiments happening this year!