Starting Summer Vegetables (at Last!)

Spring onions growing in soil blocks.

We finally got started planting vegetable seeds in the greenhouse for our summer garden. Although I’m growing starts for a local school garden using soil blocks, our seeds are all in six-packs and four-inch pots.

Soil blocks are basically compressed blocks of planting mix that stand alone in trays and are watered from below. As the plants grow, their roots are “air pruned,” meaning that the seedlings never become root bound. I’m waiting to see how much of a difference I notice with these soil blocked seedlings before investing in soil blockers. In the meantime, our ratty old six-packs work just fine.

Here is our current greenhouse vegetable lineup:

•  ‘Mild Mesclun Blend’ salad greens (one six-pack)
•  ‘Heirloom Blend’ lettuce (one six-pack)
•  ‘Louisiana Long Green’ eggplant (one six-pack)
•  ‘Olympia Hybrid’ spinach (one six-pack)
•  ‘Fountain Hybrid’ cucumber  (two four-inch pots with three seeds each)
•  ‘Bushy Pickling’ cucumber (“”)
•  ‘Sweet Meat’ Hubbard winter squash (“”)
•  ‘Eight Ball Hybrid’ summer squash (“”)
•  ‘Bush Delicata’ winter squash (“”)
•  ‘Small Sugar’ pumpkin (one four-inch pot with three seeds)

Flowers:

•  ‘Tangerine Gem’ marigold (one six-pack)
•  ‘Lemon Gem’ marigold (one six-pack)
•  ‘Red Gem’ marigold (one six-pack
•  ‘Whirligig’ zinnia (one six-pack)
•  ‘Cherry and Ivory’ zinnia (one six-pack)
•  ‘Art Deco’ zinnia (one six-pack)
•  ‘Cut and Come Again’ zinnia (one six-pack)

Nearly all of the seeds are from Territorial Seed Company, with the exceptions of the eggplant (from Abundant Life) and the salad greens (from Botanical Interests). We are going to attempt to grow summer greens in the comparatively shady front yard garden. We’ll also be supplementing the above lists with some purchased starts. This has not been a great winter/early spring for garden upkeep and preparation, as every spare moment has been taken up with chicken chores and beekeeping.

Babies in waiting.