The Old Guy's Garden Record

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 - Signs of Spring

An old Facebook memories image of asparagus coming up on a March 12 made me drive back to check our raised bed of asparagus today. I haven't as yet cleaned last year's old growth. Fortunately, no asparagus shoots were visible. I also ran across an image of early tall peas emerging on another March 12. I'm obviously running behind on my outdoor gardening.

We have daffodils in bloom. Some tulips are also up. The tulips looked good a day or so ago, but now look a bit bedraggled.

Inside, I moved our trays of geraniums from under our plant lights to the sunroom. They'd grown into the lights over them. In the sunroom, they'll experience very warm days and cool nights. The cool nights actually help their growth.

Monday, March 9, 2026

It's a warm, but gray day out today. I had a bunch of inside jobs to do, so I didn't get out to do any garden cleanup.

I did, however, get some brassicas started. I seeded Goliath broccoli, Amazing cauliflower, and Long Island Improved brussels sprouts.

The Goliath broccoli variety is one we've been saving seed from for years. It produces large heads and sideshoots late into the season.

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

The celery I seeded on Saturday is up already. So much for celery seed being slow to germinate. The celery variety is Ventura from the Turtle Tree Seed Initiative.

It's raining hard here today and the rain is supposed to continue for several days. That apparently is a good thing for farmers worried about dry soil conditions. A local weather person said this week that her farmer father was pleased with the rain predicted. That station suggested we may receive three to four inches of rain over the next few days.

I moved the Abundant Bloomsdale spinach seeds I'd been soaking to a communal pot last night.

This afternoon, I sorted out seed of our favorite lettuce varieties to start. I started two cells each of Barbados, our two favorite head lettuce varieties, Crispino and Sun Devil, our two favorite romaines, Jericho and Coastal Star, and Better Devil, a red romaine. Seed for the Barbados and Sun Devil varieties are no longer available commercially.

The seed went into deep sixpack inserts filled with sterile potting mix topped with vermiculite. I didn't cover the seed, as some lettuce varieties germinate better with a little light. The tray with the sixpacks just went onto our plant rack, but not over a soil heating mat. Lettuce seed germinates fairly well at 60-70°F.

Sunday, March 1, 2026

I post this stuff sometime in January each year, but for me, it's time to take another look at it. I obtain our frost free date from a Dave's Garden tool. You just enter your zip code and it gives you your spring and fall frost dates. Entering that information in a very helpful interactive tool from Johnny's Selected Seeds, their Seed-Starting Date Calculator, produces a long list of dates to start vegetables and flowers both inside and direct seeded. Do note that the tool only includes varieties Johnny's sells.

As I looked over the calculator list, I realized that I had missed getting some spinach transplants started on time. So I put to soak about thirty Abundant Bloomsdale seeds from the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I'm hopeful the planting will go well, as the seed was some I purchased just last year.

I also noticed that I'm running way behind the calculator's recommendations for starting stuff. But after our late start experience last season, being a bit late on getting things started is better than having transplants getting too old when the ground is too wet to work.

I moved some dianthus and vinca from their communal pots to a fourpack and three inch pots.

While it's cool out today and probably tomorrow, it appears that we may have a warm, but very wet stretch coming soon. We really do need the rain.

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Contact Steve Wood, the at Senior Gardening