How to get an early start on your garden
Once you become a gardening enthusiast, you'll be counting the days 'til you can get your hands back in the soil and that spring garden started. Here are a few tips to get you started early.
Indoor and Container gardening
Start gardening early by planting seeds indoors. Otherwise, by the time the soil is warm enough to plant outdoors, you will have already missed some valuable growing time. By starting seeds indoors in a sunny spot, your seedlings will be ready to transplant soon as the weather warms up.To get the garden underway sooner than later, consider using containers that can be moved outdoors on warm sunny days and indoors on chilly nights.
Planting seeds and/or seedlings using NuVue's Mobile Vertical Garden allows you to easily move the entire unit (or individual pots) indoors or out to follow the sun all day long and maximize growing time.
Other considerations…
Temperature
Air and soil temperature are critical when planting a spring garden.
- Cool-season vegetables that need daytime temperatures to be above 60 degrees Fahrenheit include asparagus, beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, chives, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, swiss chard, kale, lettuce and onions.
- Warm-season vegetables need daytime temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit to survive and grow. Examples are beans, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, melons, peppers and zucchini. Warm-season vegetables are not able to tolerate frost.
- To get a head start, you’ll need to understand the temperature requirements of your plants, and the average temperature when you plan to start your garden.
Portable greenhouses
Take advantage of the sunny days in early spring and consider investing in a portable greenhouse.
They set up easily and help warm the soil to give plants an early start, plus, they also protect plants from frost damage which often occurs when early spring planting.
Warm up your garden soil
It is recommended to warm up garden bed soil before planting. In addition to portable greenhouses, this can be done with black plastic, row covers.
Plastic helps hold in the sun’s heat, and also kills some weeds and pests. Plan on preheating the soil for 30 days to get head start on the growing season. After preheating, remove the plastic and plant cool-season vegetables. Make sure to keep an eye on nighttime temperatures and cover the garden if there is a chance of frost. There is nothing worse than planting an early garden to have it destroyed by a frost-filled night.
Click here for NuVue’s complete line of Vertical garden.