Yeah, I think I'm going to go ahead and see about starting an indoor setup and see how that goes and then maybe see if I can do like a hydroponics type thing. I've seen some plans on the internet and it looks pretty easy. That seems like a fun project.

I always use miracle grow potting soil for starting seeds inside.

I'm getting some weird varieties this year and I'm pretty excited about it.

Have fun!

Ok,

I've purchased a heating mat, shelving unit, two t8 light fixtures, a temperature controller, and a timer.... I am just about ready for indoor seed starting!!!

President Camacho wrote:Ok,

I've purchased a heating mat, shelving unit, two t8 light fixtures, a temperature controller, and a timer.... I am just about ready for indoor seed starting!!!

Wow. You've gone all out and should have great results. I always used to start too early, and then the danger would be the plants lose their nice stockiness and get leggy. I wait until almost March now. But you can put your plants out a few weeks earlier than I can, I'd guess.

I'm thinking leeks, lettuce, and broccoli.

Hello Camacho....where are you gardening?

We have allotments here in England....so that people who live in terraced houses with no gardens can grow stuff.

My son is very keen on the Allotment Society.....and he grows 'Heritage Seeds' which are seeds kept going from Victorian times. Peas were very hard then....
Not, hard to grow...hard as in like bullets.....not that I want to complain....

I've got a nice back garden.....and I've got a new strawberry patch, which I am just doctoring because we've had sustained and very hard frost.....below zero in double figures over Christmas.....killled all my geraniums which were under glass. Not really done much for my strawberry patch either. Even the chives look like they might give up the ghost.

I do like to grow herbs. I have wonderful sage....it is like 'Deep in the heart of Texas' here in this Cheshire Garden. I grow wonderful Rhubarb. And and also have spectacular 'bronze fennel'......xx

Hey Penelope!

Yes, I've seen some youtube videos of some of the English allotment gardeners and their gardens. Some of them even take their vegetables to shows. I've seen some of the onions they've grown in those allotments and they come out pretty huge. Unfortunately, they're of the variety that won't grow here in the south.

Heritage seeds are pretty popular here but mostly tomato, I think. There's been a big push for organic gardening but I think that's something people have been striving for forever. It's just so much easier for the hobbyist to buy fertilizer than to try and find someone with poop for sale.

I've tried strawberries once, but to be honest, the next time I try them it will be in a hydroponics setup. I see they grow quite well in those systems.

I'm happy to hear you're a fellow gardener. I've just got started, really. I'm still in the learning process.

Today I finished setting up most of the shelves and the lights and am just waiting for the heat mat and the trays to arrive. I think once they arrive, I'm going to go ahead and start the leeks. Then in Feb I will start all the lettuce and the broccoli. I'm not sure if lettuce can be transplanted. I'll have to find that out.

Then I think in March I will put in all the Tomato and anything else that can be transplanted besides the onions which will have to wait until October.

Camacho:

It's just so much easier for the hobbyist to buy fertilizer than to try and find someone with poop for sale.

LOL - You are so funny and I do love you Camacho!!

We have signs out by the roadside saying - Free Manure.

Some have a tin grit box by the gate with bags of manure and you are expected to put a £1 coin in the postbox to pay for it. I buy my hay like this...for my ferrets. Help yourself to a bag, put a £1 coin in the postbox.

But where are you? Just generally.....not specific. What is your climate like?

I wish there was a place here that offered free manure that was close by. I live in Hampton, Ga. It's the state right above Florida and I'm sort of in the middle of it. There are cow farms around here, I just need to try and get a phone number to see if I can get some manure. The last time I paid 40 dollars for 4 bobcat load fulls and that's a bit of money for poop. So I'll need to do my homework to see if I can get some cheaper.

The climate here is very hot in the summer but it snows occasionally in winter for like 3 or 4 days out of the year. So I can't have tropical plants outside but the growing season is pretty long. The last frost date here will be the end of March and the first fall frost should be early November.

President Camacho wrote:I wish there was a place here that offered free manure that was close by.

Well, from the looks of it, there are definitely some comments on the NT discussion that fall into this category

Seriously, have you tried a horse or chicken farm? We are "lucky enough" (???) to have both near here and both are very happy to oblige, free of cost, if you provide the transportation. There is even one very nice and accomodating horse farm that dries the stuff a year or two in advance, making it much more pleasurable to pick up (and scent-free). I have no chance of planting anything until May. We can still have a frost the beginning of that month.