The Garlic And Onion Patches Are Beginning to Sprout

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Bob Bauer
December 21, 2018 (Last Updated: ) | Reading Time: 2 minutes

December 21, 2018

The garlic and onion patches are beginning to sprout little spears. It's good to see the return of a new growing season. I'll be starting my spring garden indoors, in six packs, in a couple of weeks, so it feels like winter is over. The warm weather has brought out some wasps that are reducing the whitefly population. The return of flying insects is very much appreciated. I keep trying to identify them as they zip by and realized I really don't know the names of most of them..

I go " There's that yellow striped one" or "Is that a trachinid fly?". I once had a book for identification of bird species, and ended up learning the names of all the birds in my habitat. I tried that with insects and soon got overwhelmed. I thought that I would know more about the birds by knowing their names. I didn't..

December 22, 2018

The kale is just too pretty to pick. It would be like ripping the leaves off the artichoke plants. They are bushy, symmetrical, purple, jagged leaf decorative plants now, not food. We need some "eye candy" in the garden this time of year, and they are a great contrast to all the other green plants. The overwintering beets and carrots add color too, but look a bit forlorn..

They hug the ground hoping to be ignored, to make it through another day. The strawberries are thick and crowded. It's a good time to thin them. I think you can double your strawberries every year by just transplanting the daughters, until you run out of room..

December 23, 2018

I got my cauliflower, lettuce and spinach seeds yesterday. I already had Brussels sprouts, cabbage and broccoli, so I'm ready to go. None of the major retailers had veggie seeds this time of year. I had to go to a nursery. I guess starting a spring garden indoors is not as popular as I thought. It's not required to have a large greenhouse to get an early start..

The little mini greenhouses are large enough to hold two trays of starts. If you put them close to your back door you could bring the trays in if super cold nights are predicted. The summer garden planting follows the same formula of starting the seeds in trays indoors on heating mats, moving them outdoors during the daytime and back in at night. The spring veggies can stay in the trays for six weeks before the roots start getting crowded, but the summer ones should go out at four weeks..

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