What’s Growing On 2/26/2021

Teri Elmendorf McLean

Here we are, only a couple more days left in the second month of 2021.

I have my winter garden going and some seedlings that are ready to be transplanted into beds over the next couple of weeks to kick off our Spring Garden. I will also be sowing some seeds directly outside in the soil….which has grown significantly in size over the month of February. So has my seed collection.

How It Started

Last year, mid-summer, I found a growing tomato in our tomato basket. I had already really gotten sucked into making everything homemade and from scratch, so I guess this was just a natural progression, but I went ahead and googled if I could grow a tomato from a store tomato.

Based on one of the numerous videos and blog posts I saw, I decided to cut up my tomato with 1-2 sprouts per piece and planted them in a large pot. I watered them and after a week, they were poking through the ground. As they grew, I continued to google information on growing tomatoes. I would wake up every day and go out to the garden in my robe anxious to greet my tomato plants.

My husband went out on a limb and came home from Home Depot one day with multiple pots, gardening tools, bags of soil, seeds, and some seedlings. For a few days, those things just sat there.

Now here we are months later, and I have set a goal to grow 80% of our produce in 2021. We have over 200 square feet of garden space, plus extra pots and nooks and crannies around the yard, which I am strategically using to achieve the aforementioned goal. I’m looking up Southern California Root Cellar options at 3:48 in the morning and drooling over this pressure canner.

Who am I!?

Winter Garden 

Currently, I have multiple pots and containers of lettuce. We LOVE salads with our dinner and there is nothing better than homegrown (really anything) lettuce. We have Dill, Swiss Chard, Beets, Carrots, Bean, Peas, Arugula, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Strawberries, Potatoes, Parsley, Cilantro, Tarragon, Chives, Cabbage, Bok Choi, Radishes, Turnips, Southern Collards, and I’m overwintering an Ichiban Eggplant.

We also have green onions, red onions, yellow onions, white onions, and garlic growing in our converted fountain. The garlic is from seed garlic I bought but everything else is from things that we sprouted in our kitchen from the grocery store.

Spring Garden

As excited as I am about my winter garden, and I am, I love not buying lettuce and we haven’t since last August/September, I am super excited to start putting my spring garden in the ground.

I am a fan of high-intensity gardening. I got a gardening square to help me get the most out of my garden space and I am tweaking how I use it from what I have learned from MIGardener and experience these last few months.

Spring Seedlings

I have about 23 Roma tomato seedlings from an experiment that was much more successful than I anticipated. My other seedlings include acorn squash, yellow straight neck squash, yellow crookneck squash, Eggplant, Big Jim Hot Peppers, and Beefsteak tomatoes. Unfortunately, my zucchini seedlings did not make it. Oh, and we also have red and white sweet potato slips growing.

Seeds

I have so many different things to grow this spring. If you know me, you know that I am someone that makes a decision and then dives in all the way. I am only a toe in the water kind of girl when we are literally talking about swimming and a body of water.

It is crazy how quickly my seed collection grew! A few came today, a few are on the way, and I have some that I bought a few months back when I first set my goal to grow most of our produce. I have a few different stores I like to buy from, both on and off of Amazon, but all small businesses and all Heirloom and non-GMO seeds. So without further ado, this is what will be going in our Spring garden……yes….it is a ton!

And you would think that would be enough, but no. Here are the seeds that have shown up over the last couple of days including today.

And that is it. I will not be buying any more seeds for quite a while and I am letting some of each crop go to seed to collect my own. My Arugula will be ready to collect in a couple of weeks along with my Bok Choi and I just stripped my Bloomsdale stalks of their seeds yesterday.

It really didn’t seem like that many until I went to write them all down.

A lot of these can be planted throughout the summer as well as into the fall. We are in zone 10a, so some of these things can even be planted year-round.

I am intentionally not planting any kale. While I enjoy it, my grandmother, daughter, and husband hate it. Luckily, there are plenty of other fair substitutes they like. I have a large variety of corn. We eat a lot of it, but we also enjoy popcorn, my father-in-law loves popcorn, and I make all of our tortillas from scratch, so I am excited to get to mill my own masa harina.

Bright colors make me happy.

Hence why I have so many vibrant options. As for multiple types of different crops, we know what we like, but we also want to find options. Not to mention, this will be my first time growing a lot of these things so it is a great time to experiment. Different locations around the yard, different groupings and companions, and seeing what thrives in our garden and what doesn’t.

I am a copious note-taker, so I log everything and it will make it that much easier to streamline our planting throughout the year. Tomorrow is Saturday, which means it is my day to spend how I want, and with March almost here, I plan to spend as much time in the garden as possible.

Are any other Zone 10A gardeners reading this? Anyone had success with any of the above plants? I’d love to hear your experience and welcome any advice!

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