Planting the plan

There are several obstacles challenges in consistently providing fresh and yummy veggies to people (or even yourself in your own garden), aside from disease, weeds, deer, weather and everything else...  One of the most daunting challenges is ensuring that you have a steady supply of veggies throughout the season.  And the very honest fact of the matter is - the produce section of your local store isn't exactly "like nature" at all.

So - one of the best tools we have when growing (because we control it completely) is to watch the starting times of seeds and to pay attention to the length of time it takes for a plant (or seed) from when it's planted to when it's "mature" for harvesting.  And - again - unlike the bin of greens in the produce department in the middle of January - we don't get to spray the plants with a preservative to make a crop that's ready one week early "last" until we want to bring it to market the next week...  we don't get to simply "source" our plants from another region or country...  we don't get to turn off the weather...  and we sure can't turn up or down the heat!

Now - in a perfect world we could calculate all those dates - start all the plants when we need to - and sit back...  but, if you have ever been to a farmers market over the course of a summer you will see how each farm has different things that are ready at different times...  the soil - the weather and all the other things you can and sometimes CAN'T think of can conspire to move those dates around.  All we really can do is plan - plant a plan - and build into that plan buffers that can hopefully absorb all the miraculous challenges nature sometimes throws at us.

And if you are wondering - here I'm starting Celeriac - also known as celery root - it's AWESOME when mashed up with potatoes. Off to my right there are several other trays full of 6 packs like what's in front of me - FULL of the same.

Comments

[Jeph]

And by now you've probably got the sore neck/back that comes with hunching over all that seed-starting, right? ;-)

I just planted radish seeds outside, and think I'm gonna take some bunching onion seeds out there as well. Might try spinach direct sown outdoors now, even though it might be a bit early - it's got to do better out there than down in the basement with The Mouse.

[Andy]

Not yet with the back pain... that's usually a sign of tomatoes and pepper planting! :)
Outside huh - that would be hard here as the plots that are not still under snow and swimming in water (mostly)... hummm - do you think rice can be started early?