SteveC wrote:
> Couple questions.
> First, can i start any of these plants indoors a few weeks before
planting
> to get a head start?
Not necessary. Waste of money, effort and space I found. Messy too. You
can put a lot of seeds in the ground as soon as you're able to work the
ground...turnip, carrot, onion, garlic, peas, potatoes, cabbage (and
some others I can't think of offhand). They're all cold/cool weather
crops and can handle the temps in late April/early May.
Tomatoes, corn and green peppers are warm weather. Rather than start
them indoors early, I buy the seedlings from Murrays in early June.
(Though, as I pointed out, I don't bother with peppers. Too much trouble
with aphids). I keep my tomatoes in a little greenhouse for the summer
but it's not necessary. All they need is a warm, sheltered location. I
put mine in pots so it's easy to relocate them if necessary (ie frost
warning in late June...then you can wrap them up or move them into a
garage for the night).
> Potatoes, do you cut the eyes from old potatoes and do you plant the
eyes up
> or down?
Plant them whole. Don't touch the eyes. They're planted deep so that the
plant will grow above the seed spud. And buy the seed potatoes.
Supermarket spuds are sprayed to inhibit growth and can spread disease.
The seed spuds are disease free and not expensive.
> Do I need to build any make ****ft plastic green house over the bed?
Nope. The cooler weather plants I noted above can tolerate frosts. The
only thing that needs covering is turnip and cabbage...with the floating
row cover to keep the flies from laying their eggs there (resulting in
the maggots).
..
--
We must change the way we live,
or the climate will do it for us.
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