My Burpee catalog arrived in the mail yesteday, and although we very rarely buy anything from them (as our local market has all the seeds you could possibly imagine) it does excite me to see the gardening stuff starting to appear! My mind is already spinning off in a dozen different directions, trying to figure out what I'm going to plant this year.

The first thing I'll do to start will be over spring break, when I get my garden tilled up, place some fertilizer in it, and get some red potatoes in the ground

With luck our gardens may emerge from the mountains of snow by April...but like Digs, the seed/plant catalogs are starting to arrive here too. People like to look through them to think about spring, and plan their gardens.

Some friends who are avid gardeners (Ryadian's parents) often begin vegetable plantings inside in late winter so they have a head start once the danger of frost is past (sometime in late May). The growing season here is much shorter than in southern climes, so this jumpstart is quite helpful.

Here's a quick question for my fellow gardeners: What's the secret to growing good root vegetables? I have had rotten luck with onions and turnips in the past. Our onions get about the size of a golf-ball, and then start to rot in the ground. The turnips do magnificently as a plant, but their roots are shriveled, straight, and unedible.

I really hope to plant radishes, carrots, and potatoes this year. . . but haven't had any luck with roots in the past. Any suggestions?

All of my seeds for my 2011 garden(s) are either purchased or on order (except one tomato that I buy as a plant and the potatoes which aren't in yet). Yay! Probably in another week or so I will get my Pepper seeds started. Last year I started my tomatoes too early, so I'll wait til mid-February to start those.

DiGs asked me for a list of what I'm growing this year, and it's long, so here goes....

Peppers - California Wonder, Flavorburst, Habanero, Jalapeno, Poblano, Cayenne, Anaheim, Hot Thai (dunno the official name of this one, we got it from one of my husband's co-workers who's from Thailand), Green Chile

Tomatoes - Juliet, Red Lightning, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Sun Gold, Honeybunch, Italian Ice, Early Girl.

Purple Tomatillos

Leafy Greens - Mesclun, Spinach, Iceburg (first time trying an actual head of lettuce), Cabbage, Swiss Chard

Peas

Green Beans

Brussel Sprouts

Celery

Cauliflower and Broccoli

Root Veggies - Carrots, Spring Turnips, Fall Turnips, Radishes, Onions (red, yellow, white and green), Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Beets

Squash - Zucchini, Saffron Summer Squash, Butternut Winter Squash, Decorative Gourds

Cucumbers - Both for eating and pickling

Pumpkins

Watermelons

Corn

Okra

Eggplant

And my usual stockpile of herbs.

In other news, my husband bought me a greenhouse for Christmas this year. We're in the process of building it in the garage, but are now at a standstill because the next step is to move it outside and the snow on the ground is making that difficult.

Early last week I started my cauliflower, broccoli, celery, and peppers. Over the weekend my cauliflower started to come up. Yay!

My husband and I finally completed the base of our greenhouse (boy that took forever) and we've moved it to the backyard. Provided the weather cooperates this week, we hope to get it put up, or at the very least get a good amount of progress in on it.

ETA: I just checked and my broccoli is coming up as well. Yay!

FK, I demand more facebook pictures as soon as they're available (politely demand of course )

As for our own garden, I'll probably get things straightened out over Spring Break (the week after St. Patrick's Day). So far, my plan is to plant:

Green Onions
Eggplant
Broccoli
Spinach
Cabbage (Probably Dutch Flat)
Roma Tomatoes
Brandywine Tomatoes
Green Pepper (California Wonder)
Cayenne Pepper
Jalopeno Pepper
Banana Pepper (or Hungarian Wax peppers, I haven't decided which)
Bush beans (I think they're great northern, but I'm not sure)
Half-Runner Beans (October Beans)
Cucumbers (Burpless is most likely)
Peas (not sure which variety)

All of this is assuming that I get some help from family

My husband and I finished our greenhouse yesterday. Here I am putting the finishing touches on it.

After two glorious days of record highs in the 70Fs, a cold front came through last night and the temperature plummeted from 70F to 45F in about an hour. And then below freezing a few hours after that. (Gotta love the weather here ) We went to Lowes and bought a wireless thermometer to measure the indoor greenhouse temperature to see if we can keep plants in overnight safely. The short answer is no, we can't. Without the sun, the indoor temp is the same as the outdoor temp. Now that it's daytime though, it's a little warmer in there than outside, but still below freezing. So the next step it to figure out a heating system of some kind before we can move plants out there.

Speaking of plants, my broccoli and cauliflower sprouts are doing great. They've just about hit the top of the planter so I'm gonna have to take the lid off soon. The peppers and celery started coming up yesterday. Woohoo! Out of the peppers, the jalapenos are winning, with the green chiles close behind. Oh, and one Cayenne is coming up as well.

I'll probably get things straightened out over Spring Break (the week after St. Patrick's Day). So far, my plan is to plant:

First off, I basically HATE everything to do with gardening (dirt, bugs, planting, weeding, cleaning up, picking, etcetc), and I really don't know much about it but I'm curious--do you mean you are going to plant your stuff right after March 17?? Isn't that kinda cold??

That is an awesome greenhouse! I could start my pumpkins in something like that. Heating? How about decomposing manure? I do recall the steaming coming out of that stuff at the bottom of the ol goat shed ... glorious smell.

Heating?

So this is really cool... or... warm rather. As I said in my previous post, overnight, the inside temp was the same as the outside temp. But as soon as the sun hit it later this morning, the inside temp soared. I think the biggest difference I saw was outside it was 37F and inside it was 79F. So I can definitely put my plants out there during the day as long as there's sun. We're working on a scheme to heat it overnight too so I can have them out there all the time.

How about decomposing manure?

How's your eyesight? Well our compost pile (no manure ) is right on the other side of the greenhouse in that picture, but there's no way you can make it out through the plastic walls, and even if you could, all you'd see were the boarded walls. But it's there!

I'm curious--do you mean you are going to plant your stuff right after March 17?? Isn't that kinda cold??

Not all of that stuff is getting planted over spring break , but I want to get the ground tilled up, so that the snow and rain from the last part of winter and first part of spring, can get down into the ground. I also want to plant my potatoes, as they need to be planted very early. You could also get by (perhaps) with planting cold-weather things such as onions, broccoli, cabbage, and lettuce.

Indeed Val, St. Patty's Day = Plant your Potatoes! At least, that's what I've always heard. Of course, actually getting outside to the garden... I'm very pokey. (Too cold!!!) So my potatoes always go in about a month or so late and I don't usually have any problems.

So my celery has finally come up! Yay! When they get a little bigger I'm going to thin them out. I hate doing that, I feel like I'm killing of perfectly good plants, but the seeds were so tiny I couldn't plant them separately.

The broccoli and cauliflower are still doing good. They've hit the top of my planter so I'm gonna either have to re-pot those or take the lid off soon. *makes a note for next year to plant broccoli and cauliflower separately*

And my peppers are also doing well. They have almost all come up now, but I haven't had a single Poblano come up yet and I planted three of them. ARGGGG!!! That pepper hates me. Three years now and I haven't had a successful Poblano plant yet.

It's February, once I survive my busy weekend, I'm gonna be starting my tomatoes soon.

I just had to post a complaint and then one of my Poblano peppers popped up the next day. So I'm waiting on a Sweet Banana Pepper, my Habanero Pepper, a California Wonder, and the other two Poblanos. If they don't come up soon, I'll replant.

I went through and thinned out my Celery plantlings last night so they can grow big and strong without competing with each other.

Aravanna informed me that she would like to help me plant stuff as she's also suffering from the lack of green and growing things, so I think she's gonna come over some time this week to help me with my tomatoes. I also need to get my watermelons and I think also my eggplants started soon.

Hey all you green-thumbed people! I need a bit of help. I have this idea to grow peas this year. Did anyone here ever grow peas? If there are such people here, I have two questions:
1. Are they hard to grow?
2. Can I grow them inside?
Any and all information is appreciated. Thanks

I have grown peas, De_De, as has FK. Here are my answers:

1. Absolutely not! Peas grow like weeds, once they get going, it's hard to kill them off. However, you have to be careful when you're picking them, as the stalks are quite tender, and can easily be broken

2. I wouldn't think that you'd be able to grow peas inside. Peas don't grow on a bush (at least, none of the peas that I've grown ever have). Peas grow on climbing vines. I usually plant them at the very end of the garden so that they can climb up the wire fencing that is around the periphery. They usually climb to about 5 feet in height, but can grow to a smaller height if they are a different variety.

Hope that helps!