late January update and to-dos

I may have to give up on my onion seedlings. They're not doing so great.  I should've purchased sets/bulbs! I suppose it's not too late to do that. I'll have to make a trip to a local garden shop soon and hope I can find some. Worst case scenario: I have to plant something else. What a shame!  I have a box full of seeds, what ever will I plant?  (Beets, perhaps!) I will save that trip until after my first Citizen Gardener class, coming up soon! Really looking forward to it!  There will likely be at least one or two things I'll have to buy after that!  I need fertilizer, for one.

My carrot, leaf lettuce, and spinach seeds (planted 2 weekends ago) have all sprouted.  We had a couple days of heavy rain/storms this week, so I was slightly worried about the tender sprouts, but they all seem to have fared well. As did the rest of what's currently growing: kale, collard, snap peas, lettuces, garlic, and cabbages (which seem to want to take like months to mature even though they're supposed to be "early variety" -- I think our unseasonably warm winter hasn't helped).

Soon I need to support the peas a little better, trim some kale and collard leaves (both of which seem like they've been producing for months now!), and dig/amend the dirt up a bit more in the new beds.  Planting season isn't too far away!  I am surprised the peas have done as well as they have; they started flowering this past week.  I direct seeded them sometime in October, or maybe it was late September?  Or was in November? This is why I need to keep a journal now. ;)

Heirloom Gardener had a great article on garlic in their Fall 2011 edition, which I only came across tonight. I'm glad I read it!  I planted garlic in late October but I really didn't have much of an idea about what I'm supposed to do with it since. :) I only have around 10 plants growing.  With the way we go through garlic, that might last us 2 months. Or less, since they're bound to be way smaller than the crap we buy at the grocery store!

That's one thing growing my own food has made me aware of: how much supermarket veggies suck!  The abnormally large or unnaturally pretty things now creep me out a little.