This year has been hectic. We moved again. Work is busy. They have me on 4 projects and I’m swamped. I’m the primary care-giver for my 2 year old and to top it off we are uncertain about my spouse’s job. Needless to say the early garden isn’t off to a good start. Every time I pull out the seed catalogs my little one wants to color on them….and I let her :) Getting the seed order in has been hard.
Here it is early April and I should have my peppers started indoors already. We are on the Canadian Prairie’s in the province of Saskatchewan and we can safely plant out tomatoes around May 19th and peppers early June. Anytime earlier than that would be part of the early garden plan. With a little protection and a good year the beginning of May isn’t hard.
But what do you do when you need those six weeks at the seedling stage and you haven’t even setup your fluorescent grow lights yet? Standing in the garden center I noticed they already had some tomatoes out. That got me thinking.
Looking at these already spindly seedlings I knew they needed a good home. Taking those 6 pack tomatoes which already have 3 to 4 weeks growth on them and potting them up and putting them under the grow lights I could easily stop the leggy growth. Without much effort I’d have some nice plants that I could put out in the garden in another 2 to 3 weeks!
To top it off it I’m right on track for starting my main season tomatoes indoors. With my mercy rescue of the seedlings from the garden center along with some cozy coat season extenders, some black plastic, cloches milk jugs and other garden aides, I’ll be eating those early tomatoes 4 weeks before the main season crop.
Now that’s an early garden in a hurry.