Successful seed starting for us gardeners is about combining the right timing, light, seeds, and seed starting mixes all together. And when starting seed indoors, we control every element, including the seed starting mix.

For modern homestead gardeners, a high-quality seed starting mix creates the foundation for strong roots, healthy growth, and resilient seedlings when starting seeds indoors.

While it can be tempting to scoop soil straight from the garden or grab any bag labeled “potting mix,” but seed starting mixes are a category all their own. They’re designed to support early plant growth using sustainable gardening practices that protect seedlings during their most vulnerable stage.

Click HERE for my Free Seed Starting 101 Guide
Or Register for my On Demand Class HERE

Why Seed Starting Mix Is Different From Potting Soil

Seedlings are delicate. In their earliest stages, roots are extremely fine, stems are tender, and plants are more vulnerable to disease and stress. Garden soil and standard potting soil are often too dense, nutrient-heavy, or biologically active for young plants.

A proper seed starting mix is lightweight, finely textured, and typically sterile, making it ideal for organic seed starting. A sterile seed starting soil is free from weed seeds, pathogens, and fungi that cause damping off—one of the most common failures when starting seeds indoors. And here sterile means ‘essentially sterile’ as it will still have some active biology. This clean, controlled environment gives seeds the best chance to germinate evenly and grow without competition.

Starting Seeds Indoors Means Replacing Nature

When we start seeds indoors, we’re asking plants to do something they were never meant to do. In nature, seeds germinate in living soil, supported by weather patterns, microbial life, and gradual environmental cues. By moving seeds inside, we remove them from their natural habitat and place them into an artificial one where light, airflow, moisture, and temperature are entirely controlled by us.

A thoughtfully designed seed starting mix helps replace what’s missing from nature by providing consistency and protection until plants are strong enough to transition into outdoor beds or richer soil systems. I mean, seeds want to grow— but we also want to give them the best chance to live their best lives.

Learn more about Winter Sowing your veggies, and letting Mother Nature handle the sunlight and temperature in my article HERE.

The Importance of Sterility in Organic Seed Starting

One of the most critical features of a seed starting mix is sterility. While biologically active soil is ideal for established plants, seedlings benefit from beginning life in a clean environment.

Using a sterile seed starting mix reduces the risk of fungal diseases and pest pressure without relying on chemical treatments, an important goal for gardeners committed to sustainable and organic methods. Once seedlings are established, beneficial microbes can be introduced intentionally through compost and transplanting into healthy garden soil.

Texture: Fine, Light, and Root-Friendly

Texture plays a major role in successful seed starting. Small seeds need consistent contact with moisture to germinate, and coarse or compacted mixes can prevent that. Seed starting mixes are screened and blended to create a fine, airy structure that supports healthy root development.

Coconut Coir: A Sustainable Foundation for Seed Starting

Many seed starting mixes now rely on coconut coir as a base ingredient, making it a favorite among gardeners focused on sustainability. A coconut coir seed starting mix offers good moisture retention, resists compaction, and maintains a neutral pH—ideal for young seedlings. Some gardeners have had minor issues with high salt content. To avoid that look for buffered or washed coir products. Always buy from a reputable distributor.

Because coconut coir is a renewable byproduct of the coconut industry, it aligns well with sustainable gardening practices and my modern homestead values. It also performs reliably in both commercial and DIY seed starting mix recipes. It does get shipped from far away, though…

Drainage and Aeration

Alongside coconut coir, seed starting mixes include materials such as perlite, vermiculite, pumice, or rice hulls to improve drainage and airflow. Whether you’re mixing your own soil or purchasing a ready-made blend, proper aeration prevents root rot and encourages strong root growth, two essentials for healthy transplants in any homestead garden plan.

Another way to encourage strong roots and start seeds is through the SOIL BLOCKING method.

Consistent Moisture for Indoor Seed Starting Success

Maintaining consistent moisture is one of the biggest challenges when starting seeds indoors. High-quality seed starting mixes absorb water evenly and drain excess moisture efficiently. This consistency is especially helpful for gardeners managing many trays in their indoor seed starting as part of larger homestead garden planning efforts.

Low Nutrient Content Is Intentional

Unlike potting soil, seed starting mixes are usually lower in nutrients. Seeds contain the energy they need to germinate, and excess fertilizer can burn young roots. This low-nutrient approach supports organic seed starting by encouraging roots to develop fully before feeding the plant.

As you can see below, I do add some micro-nutrients to my own seed starting mix. I find this especially helpful for seedlings that are living inside for more than 6 weeks (tomatoes, peppers, onions). Nutrients can be added later through diluted liquid fertilizers or during transplanting into garden beds as well.

Seed Starting Mix

4 parts coconut coir
2 parts mushroom compost or 1-2 parts worm castings
2 parts perlite
1/4 cup blood meal
< 1/4 cup bone meal
< 1/4 cup Azomite (aka rock dust)

SOAK COCONUT COIR FOR AT 2+ HOURS PRIOR TO MIXING

*I mix this in a large tote with a snap on lid to maintain moisture.

This is different than my soil blocking recipe, which is heavier on binding materials.

If the idea of DIYing your seed starter is too much – I highly recommend and will use in a pinch one brand. ProMix uses high quality ingredients and organic slow release fertilizers.

For modern homestead gardeners, predictability matters. A well-designed, sterile seed starting mix reduces variables and makes troubleshooting easier. When soil structure and moisture are consistent, it’s easier to adjust light, temperature, and airflow to meet plant needs.

A seed starting mix isn’t just dirt, it’s a carefully planned growing environment. For gardeners focused on organic seed starting and sustainable gardening practices, choosing or making the right mix is a foundational decision. Strong plants begin with strong roots, and strong roots are nurtured by the right mix.

And remember, seeds want to grow!

Dig Into Seed Starting!
Michelle

The post The Most Important Aspects of a Seed Starting Mix (and Why They Matter) appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

First, let’s get clear on what YOUR garden goals are. Setting an intention up front (and knowing it will change with/in the seasons) can be a welcome guidepost later in the planning process. Try to not to compare your gardens or goals to anyone else’s.

Also, I’ll suggest you start small and manageable and plan to add on as you get comfortable with growing more and more. I really want gardening to be a joyful experience for you—not a slogging chore hanging over your head.

Did you know I have a FREE Garden Design Class video on my YouTube Channel? We go over all the basics covered here plus even more details so check it out if you’re looking for more information.

Let’s Dig In!

Before We Dig In

Let’s plan making our vegetable gardens places of beauty for us and the rest of nature that we want to invite in!

The more you start using your front and back yard, the more you’ll want to make the most of every square foot.

Mapping it out on paper will help you see your space in new ways. Keep in mind water, easy access, electrical and zoning requirements for sheds, chicken coops, etc.

There are as many ways to design and implement a garden as there are gardeners. And, if there’s a friend or neighbor’s garden that you admire, ask them if you can use their plans in your space; imitation is the highest form of flattery…

Focus on growing what you and your family like to eat, and what will grow well in the space you have. Know Your Growing Zone! Follow THIS LINK to find your USDA Plant Hardiness Zone.

Call Before You Dig

#811 is the national number to call to request that all buried utilities be marked before you start digging. Plan to give them a few days lead time to mark buried electrical, cable, and water lines.

Vegetable Garden Design: Layout Basics

Garden beds function best when built to the 3-4-foot wide range.

Main pathways are best kept at 2 feet wide. Some smaller gardens can get away with 18” pathways, but if you need to get a wheelbarrow into a space, you’ll need a minimum of 2 feet.

Keep in mind that beds do not have to be straight. Depending on materials, the shapes are limited only by your imagination and the space itself.

Basic Garden Planning Steps

• Draw the garden perimeter.
  
• Draw in hardscapes. These non-plant items include fences, paths, and fixed items, now you’ve got a ‘Base Plan’. STOP and make copies at this point so you can play with design.
  
• Draw rough outline of garden bed shapes and sizes.
  
• Make a list of all the plants you want to grow in your garden (grow what you eat).
  
• Draw plants into beds (remembering orientation, spacing, trellising, harvesting accessibility).
  
• Add in companion planting options.
   
• Add in succession planting options.
  
• Revise, revise, revise.  
  
• Save your plans from year to year and make notes and use for planning crop rotation.

Vegetable Garden Orientation

When starting your plant layout keep in mind the sun’s orientation. Plant taller plants on the north end of the bed so you don’t block sun from other shorter plants (unless you want to create shade for lettuces, etc.). If you plan on making any of your raised beds into cold frames, know that an east-west orientation (with the window slanted towards the south) is recommended.

Design Your Layout Sketch

Next, sketch the shape of your garden. Get outside and measure existing spaces or walk the area and measure it out. Draw the perimeter of the space to scale on graph paper. Most garden beds will work well drawn to a scale of 1 foot to 1 square on regular graph paper. Next, add existing hardscapes that won’t be moving. Then, stop and make copies of this ‘base plan’ so you can markup many drafts without having to repeat this step again!

Now’s the time to refer to the list of ‘want to grow’ plants you’ve been gathering. If your list of what you want to grow is longer than what you have space for, narrow the list down by considering what your original garden goals were. Keep in mind what your family likes to eat most, what you could buy from a local farmer instead, and what is most cost effective to grow. This is the tough part—rarely is there room for all the things we want to grow. Now is the time to compromise.

Plant Spacing

How you space your plants is going to depend a little on the kind of gardener you are… Do you like things orderly, or does a little chaos feed your soul? Of course, read the seed packets and consider their recommendations. Many of those packets focus on ‘row’ gardening, although some are starting to include square foot spacing as well.

Most gardeners (us included!) struggle with remembering just how big plants really get by the end of the growing season. Giving plants ample space will help them flourish and make your late season gardening jobs (like no dig garden clean up) more enjoyable too.

Spacing plants too close can decrease air flow and light, both of which can lead to weakened plants. Weak plants are more susceptible to disease and pest pressure. I tend to crowd my plants a little but am aware that I need to pay extra attention to them. Also of note, the more crowded the plants, the trickier the harvest.

For me, spacing ends up looking like this in 4-foot-wide beds:

• 24 carrots
• 12 onions or garlic
• 8-10 beets
• 4-5 pak choi, celery, head or leaf lettuce
• 3 broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, kale, peppers, or potatoes
• 2-3 tomatoes
• 1 zucchini, summer, or winter squash

Row spacing will vary based on plants, and you can really play with space when it comes to plants you’ll trellis, like pole beans, cucumbers, and squash! Learn how to make the most of the space you have in my Vertical Gardening online class. I also tend to interplant a lot, which can alter plant spacing.

Place Your Plants

Taking into consideration the elements we talked about before: orientation, vertical planting, and plant spacing, start placing plants into your ‘Base Plan’. Know you’ll likely move things around quite a few times as you work this out.

This is the step where some garden alchemy happens—you’re using your imagination along with your experience. This process gets easier to see each time you do it. Think about your garden through the seasons, imagine pollinators, harvesting, and how the sun changes. Envisioning your garden in the fall can help you get the most out of your space without it becoming overwhelming!

*Confession: It is still hard for me to remember how big broccoli plants really get as I’m transplanting tiny seedlings into the garden!

Getting a plan onto paper will help you visualize the garden better, but remember there’s nothing like seeing a garden grow throughout the seasons. Living the experience is really what it’s all about—and nature is the best teacher.

Try keeping a record of what you grew in which garden spaces. I tend to lean on my Instagram account and story archives for this, along with a spreadsheet of seed starting dates and a few notes on how plants performed. This practice helps you fine-tune your garden skills year over year. It also helps you practice crop rotation in the future.

More Vegetable Garden Design Tips

Plan space for companion flowers to help with pest defense too. Flowers add beauty, pollinators, habitat, and joy to any vegetable garden.

Next, consider succession planting options for growing multiple crops in the same garden beds throughout the season.

Finally, consider the rest of the ecosystem when garden planning. See your garden as part of nature and work with it instead of against it.

All that dreaming you’ve done up to this point will pay off in the long run with happier plants and heartier harvests.

I hope this helps you Dig In and plan your best garden yet!

-Michelle

The post Vegetable Garden Design Basics appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

You’ve probably heard it’s best to harvest from your garden in the morning. Maybe you’ve also heard not to harvest from your garden when wet… These can seem contradictory especially on damp, dewy mornings. But there’s more behind the ‘not wet and not wilted’ reasoning.

I’m sharing some best practices to harvest lots of delicious and nutritious food to make your garden healthier and more productive.

Why Not When Wet?

We should generally hold off harvesting from our gardens until plants are dried off because when we open a wound on a plant from harvesting by cutting or breaking off we’re leaving an entrance on the plant for diseases.

Fungal and bacterial diseases (blight, powdery mildew, rust, etc.) multiply while the leaves are wet. So, the chance of them getting directly into a wound is greater with a wet plant as well. This timing also makes it harder for the plant to fend off the diseases in general.

When it rains, any ‘germs’ a plant has on its surface are captured in rain drops. If a gardener were to go through while the plants are wet, the ‘germy’ water from one plant is shared with neighboring plants as the gardener brushes the leaves and moves from one plant to the next.

Even though I love walking through a garden right after it rains (it feels so lush and primal doesn’t it!?) I try to remember to stay in the wide paths and not touch plants to minimize the spread of diseases.

When leaves are wet, their pores become much more open to their surroundings. A plant’s roots and leaves will take up the most water in the morning.  Later in the heat of the day, the water-absorbing pores on the leaves tend to close up as a way to retain the moisture they have. This closing of the pores can make plants LOOK like they need water later in the afternoon, but it’s just the plant’s biology taking care of itself and holding onto water from the inside out.  That’s why middle-of-the-day-watering is pretty much a waste of time and resources. You’re likely watering a plant that doesn’t need it and can’t really absorb it. Plus the heat will evaporate most of the water anyways. Remember, even water under the surface of soil turns to gas as it heats up. Another reason to mulch your gardens.

*Note – you may still want to water seeds and tiny seedlings in the middle of the day to keep that thin layer of soil where the plant is active sufficiently damp. Consider mulching shallow rooted plants as well.

Avoid Harvesting from your Garden When Dry

Herbs are easy to grow, but do best when harvested during that not wet but not yet wilted stage. One exception to is if you’re just grabbing a handful to make Infused water. Herbs are at their best flavor when no extra water is present on any leaves. But also, you don’t want them heated up by the sun as this causes the plant’s essential oils to vaporize. You can generally tell when it’s too late in the day to harvest an herb if you can smell it before you get to the plants. All the oils you want to capture are already floating in the air.

Read my blog for detailed information on Harvesting, Preserving and Using Herbs

Harvesting Tips

Think about the produce you’re picking. The thinner the skin the higher the respiration rate. We don’t usually think of plants as breathing but they’re continually respirating which is why food will eventually rot.

In general food with thicker skin (Winter Squash) respirate at a slower rate and can stay ‘shelf stable’ for months.

*Pick berries only when dry. Berries in particular have incredibly thin skin and a high respiration rate. Berries picked in the rain will retain this moisture and start to rapidly mold.

*Clean snips between harvests. Using the same snips or knife to harvest at this time might also spread those same disease around. I try to always have some rubbing alcohol around (extra hand sanitizer works too) to spray and wipe down blades between pruning.

*Dunk in water. You can submerge + store cucumbers, celery and heads of lettuce/greens in clean water for an hour or so post harvest to help keep moisture content.

*Have a clean, smooth container ready. Bruising, or puncturing skin of just harvested veggies can be easily avoided.

*A few plants should be harvested while still wet– lettuce greens, and sweet corn.

Tomatoes-

Not only are tomatoes more susceptible to diseases if picked after a rain, but they also tend to split/crack open after a large rain event. So, if you’ve got some ‘almost ripe’ tomatoes hanging on the vine- go ahead and pick them before that big storm rolls in. They can finish ripening inside. There’s nothing wrong with picking a tomato in the afternoon – especially if you’re going to eat it right away. Remember the thinner skin of tomatoes though, they’ve lost some of their water content from the heat of the day. But I think this can make their flavor even more intense- sun warmed tomatoes for the win!

Beans–

Bacterial Bean Blight- causes light green or yellow spots to form on bean leaves. The blight eventually kills the leaf and weakens the plant, which may stop producing or die all together. The disease is more readily spread when you disturb wet plants during harvest. It is best to avoid picking beans from wet plants if they are still producing. 

Cucumbers and Zucchini-

Pick them often and on the small side, the seeds will be smaller and the skin thinner on most varieties the earlier you pick them. Using a snips to cut cucumbers from the vine and a sharp (clean) knife to cut zucchini and summer squash off the vine will keep you from damaging the plant. These are known to get powdery mildew which can be spread by splashing water.

I hope this help you with harvesting from your garden and growing happier healthier plants!

Dig In!
Michelle

The post Harvesting from Your Garden appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

There are few veggies that bring me as much JOI in the garden and on my plate as this veggie, so I’m declaring myself a founding member of the Joi Choi Fan Club! She’s as delicious as she is beautiful!

This has consistently been one of the easiest veggies to grow. It is also one of the fastest maturing early spring veggies, ready to harvest within 30 days of transplanting in all but the coldest spring weather. This means I can usually get at least three successions of Joi Choi in each season in my Zone 4 gardens.

Read more about Succession Planting HERE

It is way more heat tolerant than other Pak Choi I’ve tried. Meaning it keeps growing a lot longer, and therefore bigger before it bolts. I mean, look at those thick stalks! All that stem equals weights of close to 2 lbs. per average plant if harvested all at once. Last fall I harvested a single Joi Choi that was over 4 lbs. heavy and still tender and crisp in October!

When growing, Joi Choi forms a 12–15″ tall, broad, heavy plant with dark green leaves pure white stalks. Plants prefer a wide spacing of at least 1 foot. I plant three total across my 4′ wide beds.

I buy my seeds from Johnny’s and have had great germination rates and consistent harvests for years now.

Harvesting Joi Choi

I often just harvest the outer stems. Treating this as a cut-and-come-again veggie is possible because it can hold in the garden better than most other varieties of Pak choi. The leaves make great ‘wraps’ for lettuce-wrapped meals.

The leaves do tend to be a little more bitter than most folks enjoy, so they do need a little doctoring, but adding chopped stalks and leaves to stir fry, etc. is a great way to use them and gain the nutritional benefits too!

The stems are so crisp they even stand up to being sliced on a mandolin! I will shred raw like a coleslaw, chop for stir fry, or just add a little garlic (or some garlic scapes) for a simple side dish. I can succession sow these at least three times a year, and they are gorgeous in the garden as well. They also hold well in the fall garden, but do need protection if we drop down to the 30s.

Read more on Garlic Scapes HERE

The following recipe is what I make when I end up harvesting a few at a time, usually when they start to bolt at the end of June.

I’m always so busy at this time of year, so I crafted this super simple ferment as a spin off from a zucchini and carrot ferment recipe from Stephanie at Minnesota From Scratch (my Small-Scale Homesteading coauthor) I’d been making and boom—the flavor is something I look forward to each year! I do a batch with and one without the red pepper flakes for a little extra variety.

This recipe uses an old school mandolin to slice the Joi Choi. It is a slow process, but I like the crisp edges better than what a food processor does.
But you do you

Also, I make this Kimchi Style Kraut with green cabbage that I love!

Joi Choi Fermented Slaw Recipe

• 1.75 lbs sliced stalks (max 1/4 green leaves)
• .5 lbs medium carrots, shredded
• .25 lbs garlic scapes minced (or diced in food processor) (can sub regular garlic for scapes)
• 1 Tbsp Kosher Salt (iodine free, fine grain)
• Red pepper flakes if desired

1. Prep all veggies by washing and shredding
2. Mix together with salt and pepper flakes, massaging to make a brine
3. Pack into sterilized jar
4. Submerge veggies under brine, weighing down a with jar weight
5. Add lid of choice, either burpless or check daily

Depending on the temperature where you’re fermenting, I leave my jar out to ferment for roughly 4–6 days. Warmer temps make for a faster ferment. Make sure to check daily, both to burp extra gasses and to check for ‘floaties.’ These are the little bits and pieces that if on the surface can attract bad bacteria instead of the good kind to your fermented foods.

Here are some basics of fermentation from Harvard Medical School.

I love this on eggs both scrambled and hard boiled, mixed into stir fry, even on Asian spiced fish with rice. So versatile, and a fun way to savor two start of summer flavors together: Garlic Scapes and Joi Choi!

Have I tempted you to try growing Joi Choi now too?

Dig In,
Michelle

The post Growing Joi Choi + Recipe appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

Like anything you grow at home, ginger from your garden just tastes better than store bought. And with how much I love ginger’s bold and distinct flavor, of course I grow it. Plus, growing an exotic, tropical plant up in zone 4 is pretty darn empowering.

Then there’s the fact that most ginger sold in the U.S. is imported from China, Brazil, or Thailand…and has been grown without much regulation and then shipped thousands of miles. Add in that it is a beautiful plant that smells amazing, and you’ve got to try growing ginger at least once!

Ginger Botany

Zingiber Officinale roscoe
Classified as an aromatic herb, the part of the ginger plant we most often eat is called a rhizome, the underground stem of a plant. But with homegrown ginger you can enjoy the stems as well. I chop the stems and enjoy them in tea!

Native to Southeast Asia, this plant likes it hot and humid. So if you have a greenhouse, you’re a step ahead, but dedicating your warmest space to this plant should get you a happy harvest too. Growing ginger is an 8-10 month project, so we try to get started at the end of January here in Minnesota zone 4. And yes, these plants will be LARGE before they head outside, so plan for space similar to a tomato and they may even have to stay inside longer.

Here’s a Ginger Growing Timeline

• Jan 20-Feb 20: Start soaking your rhizomes
• Jan 27- Feb 27: Pot up into soil, in a tray to sprout
• March 1-15: Pot up again into deeper pots with ample space
• June 1-15: Once temps are 65+F outside, you can move to final growing space outdoors

Growing Ginger

Just like with growing anything, it makes a difference if you can start with healthy rhizomes. Organic ginger stock is best because you know the rhizomes haven’t been sprayed with any growth inhibitors (another reason to soak the rhizomes before planting). Plus if you’ll be growing it organically, the plant will have been through a similar growth pattern before. I have yet to buy ginger from a seed company, as I’ve had good luck with organic ginger from my co-op.

Look for firm, dense rhizomes. You can break apart into smaller pieces before soaking, making sure each piece has a bud or two on it. You can heal the ‘wounds’ where you broke them apart if you’re going to skip the soaking part.

I start by adding my ginger pieces to a dark container, and soaking in water for a week or two, changing it out every few days. I add a few tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide to my soaking water to increase the oxygen available to the nodes.

Then, once plumped and possibly sprouting a little more, I’ll plant the rhizomes a few inches deep into some happy, rich, well-draining seed starting mix (find my recipe for Seed Starting Mix in my Seed Starting 101 blog) in a seedling tray. I add a mix of worm castings and/or sifted compost to the potting mixture to add a boost of nutrients. It usually takes about three weeks to see noticeable buds sprouting on my ginger.

I don’t do anything special for my ginger except keep the soil moist, fertilize like tomatoes, and give them as much extra light and warmth as possible throughout the growing season.

End of Season

Tip: I have brought large plants back inside because of cold spring and fall temperatures. If it’s going to get below 50F in teh spring I will bring them back in because the colder temps really seem to affect these guys getting growing again.

Other than that, just make sure they stay warm—ginger’s perfect growing temp is right at 70-75F—and the soil doesn’t dry out. A little afternoon shade is OK too! I’ve grown well in front of a south facing wood fence that traps a little heat.

The first few years of growing, I used my little greenhouse. I can trap lots of heat in there during the day (it can often be 90F inside when it only gets up to 60F outside) so even if it dips below 50F overnight, I can keep my ginger warm enough overnight inside my greenhouse. But I think it may have gotten a little too hot in there. So now I just plant a few weeks later, and keep it outside unless the temperatures dip below 50F at night.

If you can, plant them in a location where you can brush the leaves as you walk by. The scent of ginger plants is intoxicating.

Harvesting Ginger

As for harvesting ginger, you’ll wait for one of two signs. If you’re up north like me, wait until the temperatures are dropping, or you’ll notice they stop taking up as much water and their leaves start to turn yellow (I’ve heard it’s similar to the way garlic starts to dry out). Either way, your ginger has slowed/stopped adding on to its rhizome at that point.

So go ahead and pull apart those big beautiful juicy rhizomes, snip the stems to a few inches above the root (and save for tea if you want), and gently scrub off any remaining dirt.

Preserving Ginger

I like to keep a few ‘roots’ in the refrigerator, and they keep for a few weeks (much longer than the dried out grocery store options. In the past, I would grate and freeze the majority of the rest. But, I am going to try a new method; wrapping whole knobs of ginger in foil and then putting those inside a freezer bag. It is supposed to hold the flavor better- plus it is easier to grate frozen ginger! I use a mandolin to grate the roots, so keeping a section of stem on makes it a LOT easier to grate them.

And I use ginger almost daily. Ginger goes into my cooking, teas, homemade elderberry syrup, baked goods, and ferments – like ginger bug soda!

My three pots of ginger produced almost enough to get me through the season, until I started making ginger bug… So, I’m increasing my ginger growing by almost double this coming season.  That’s why we garden – so we can grow what we love, right!

One of my dreams is to make my own ginger powder from dehydrated ginger someday. I’ve done that with my homegrown garlic, but haven’t increased my stock enough to attempt that with ginger – yet.

Are you growing ginger this season?

Dig In,

Michelle

The post Growing Ginger in the North! appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

I think my deep love for beets may be in part because it was one of those vegetables my mother NEVER cooked. So, I got to discover it all on my own and there’s something simply endearing about that, isn’t there? Their flavor and nutritional powers are pretty good reasons to love them as well…

Variety Matters!

I also love beets because you can use the entire plant, literally roots to shoots. I admit it took me a few years to fully board the ‘beet green’ bandwagon- but I am quite comfy now not giving up my seat now!

The rest of my family grew to love beet greens as a substitute for half the greens in their salads last summer. They even preferred it to spinach as the season wore on… we’ve also been enjoying frozen beet greens this winter.

But the beetroot is still up for debate with most of them.

One HUGE step forward was growing Burpee’s Golden from Seed Saver’s Exchange and most recently, Territorial Seed Company’s “Avalanche” white beets. I don’t mind the ‘earthy’ flavor of beets at all, in fact I adore that flavor palette, but the rest of my family was a hard pass.

First off, homegrown beets (like all veggies) just taste better than store bought, so that’s one step closer. But the Golden and White varieties have truly decreased some of that flavor profile. This also corresponds to the greens (hence eating it like spinach). While there are beets grown specifically for their greens, I find the greens of the regular varieties we grow just as tasty.

Growing Beets

Like any vegetable, the flavors will reflect that soil that nurtured it- so making sure the soil is rich with humus and well-draining. They also like phosphorus, so for those of in Minnesota, where we typically have lots of phosphorus in the soil- this is good news. They tend to be a little picky with their pH, doing best between 6.5-7, a pretty small window. Besides making sure to water well so they don’t get tough, the other tip is to make sure you thin early and give them lots of space! I also like starting these really early. I direct sow the majority of my beet crop once the soil reaches 40F. But will also start a few in a winter sowing jug to get a jump start. More on winter sowing HERE.

Harvesting Beets

I usually just harvest as I need as they do hold well in the early summer and later fall. You can also harvest the “beet greens” the leaves similar to a cut and come again lettuce, taking the outer leaves as they mature. Always make sure to leave enough leaves to keep the roots happy. I use fresh beet greens just like spinach, and the baby leaves are every bit as tasty as any other green.  

Most beets can be taken a little earlier than their typical 50-60 days to maturity. While they don’t appear to change much, if they stay in the ground too long after their 60 days to maturity, they will get woody.

Eat Yer Beets!

I really enjoy raw shredded beets on salads, along with the more traditional roasted and sliced options. Grilling them the night before when we’re already using the grill (or oven if winter) makes it so much easier to incorporate these veggies into meals.

I’ll also give one more shout out to the Beet Greens

I also adore Beet Kvass. This is a fermented beet juice that is slightly salty and tangy and tastes like the winter to me. It can be an acquired taste, but I have definitely acquired it, and actually crave it in the depths of winter…

Beet Kvass Recipe

2 to 3 large beets, scrubbed but skins on.
Chop into ½-1 inch cubes.
Add beets, 1 tsp salt and cover with water in a glass jar or crock, making sure to dissolve salt.
Screw on lid tight and keep away from direct light.
Check daily (or more often) to mix and to release any build up of gas. I ferment for 3-4 days.
Strain off the fermented juice and enjoy.

I often eat the beets after draining too, and my chickens go BONKERS for them, although I do rinse off any excess salt before giving them to my hens.

Chef in the HOUSE

Another favorite way to eat them is in Chef Matt’s Beet Risotto! I’ve made his recipe a few different ways and loved them all. This is a versatile recipe that is delicious with different varieties of beets, from the blood red, to the golden and whites!

With my Avalanche White Beets, I shredded and added to the risotto right at the end, as shown in one of Chef Matt’s notes on the recipe below. But pink and red rice is fun, delicious and fitting for Valentine’s celebrations too! Remember, Food is Fun!

Chef Matt

Chef Matt is a stellar chef and local food aficionado (along with being my good friend)! He teaches online cooking classes via “Chef’s House”, prepares weekly “pick up’ meals and caters events large and small. You may also recognize him from the Cider table at our White Bear Lake Winter Farmers Markets…

If want to support a local small business and learn to cook local food at the same time, he’s your guy! Chef Matt is down to earth and explains things thoroughly- but also has a great sense of humor that makes the classes fun- and you’ll love eating the results!

Link to Chef Matt’s Online Cooking Classes

Beet Risotto Recipe

Ingredients                 Amount

Arborio Rice                          1.5 cups
Beets                                    2 or 3 each 
Yellow Onion                        1 medium Onion 
Garlic                                      3 Cloves
Chicken Stock       2 Quarts +
Oil, Vegetable or Olive    Varies
Salt and Pepper                   To taste
Parmesan Cheese              To taste
Butter to finish the dish and for the puree

Steps for Roasting Squash

1. Place whole, washed beets in a roasting dish.
2. I like to add fresh herbs, onion, garlic, apple or orange to the roasting pan, leave in large pieces.
3. All pieces will be tossed in Oil and Salt, pepper, and add ¼ cup of water.
4. Cover with Tinfoil.
5. Place in a 400 degree oven until fork tender and browned. Do not worry if the bottom of the pieces gets dark, it will add to the flavor.
6. Peel beets once they are still warm.

Steps for Beet Puree

1. Place warm beets into the blender.
2. Season with Salt, Pepper
3. Add ¼ cup warm water
4. Add 1 tablespoon of butter
5. Purée until smooth, if more liquid is needed use warm water

Steps for cooking main recipe

1. Get water or Stock heating up in a separate pot.
2. Cook onions and garlic in oil over medium heat. We do not want to get too much color on them, just sweat them to soften up.
3. Add rice and coat in the oil.
4. Cook rice till it starts to look translucent, or “pearlized”.
5. Once rice is looking clear, we will begin adding the liquid.
6. Risotto is about stirring the rice to get the starch to release and thicken the rice.
7. We will keep stirring and once the liquid is just about reduced and gone, we will add another ladle full.
8. Repeat stirring and adding liquid until Rice is al dente and a slightly thickened “sauce” is in the pan.
9. To finish, we will add some of the beet puree, Parmesan cheese, butter, and season with salt and pepper.
10. Garnish with sautéed beet greens if they are in good shape.

Recipe Notes

You could also grate the beets and then sauté them quickly with the onions and garlic and then let them soften up as you are stirring the rice and adding liquid. *This is my favorite way to use my white Avalanche beets!

Another nice beet dish is to use regular rice, cook it, cool it, add the cooked beets and any other veggies you want. I usually make a flavored mayo to use as a dressing.

THANK YOU CHEF MATT!

Deep Beet Love

Because my love of beets runs deep, I wanted to share one more way I enjoy eating them – home made beet chips! These are easiest in a dehydrator, but can be done in an oven (just watch them closely so they don’t burn). I’ve got them pictured plain with just a marigold microgreen (they are deliciously lemony) so you can see the chip- but I usually eat them with a smear of goat cheese and micros!

I really hope Chef matt and I have inspired you to both grow and cook more with beets!

Let us know what you think below!

Cheers to Digging into beets,
Michelle

The post Beet Love appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

It is perfectly absurd to search for a beginning or an end to this cycle; is it when the seeds start forming, when I harvest my saved seed out of the garden, as I store it over winter, or when I plant it next spring that is “the beginning”? Is it when the food emerges, when its ripe, when I harvest, when I eat it, or when I compost the excess that is “the ending”? 

Taking into consideration the piles of compost, continuously added to by our hens, and all the other intertwined inputs and harvests from our little backyard homestead garden- I’m proud to announce that I can I find neither beginning nor end… instead I find a naturally flowing cycle that swallows its own tail year after year. A process without any one formula, rather a myriad of methods and infinite accomplishments along its way.

That being said; we all like to “take stock” every so often. The end of the calendar year, as the garden lays sleeping and frozen under the snow here in Minnesota seems a fitting time as ever. So, I’m taking a look back on this year of growing with you to share what I gleaned from my gardens. Or rather, what lessons my garden unearthed for me. I’ve added links to previous posts at the end of most topics, as it seems the lessons I learned this year are also perennial. But as with gardening- the roots grow deeper and the harvests increase with each passing year. I hope you can take a few of these ideas and let them inspire you to grow and harvest more (veggies, sustainability, peace) from your gardens this upcoming season. Let’s Dig In!

Grow Lights are Worth It

Without grow lights my northern garden simply would not produce the food (looking at you tomatoes + peppers) I look forward to starting from seed every year. If I purchased all the crops I grow as plants rather than seed my garden would not be profitable. Grow lights are an investment, but being able to start plants indoors is a game changer that any gardener who has taken the leap will attest to. If you want to start a garden from seeds, and you live in a cold growing zone like I do- these help produce happy healthy plants!
Seed Starting 101
Seed Catalog and Company Overview

Extend Your Growing Season

Growing under any kind of cover can bring both earlier and later harvesting. Extending your growing season by a few weeks on each end may not seem like a lot, but in my zone 4 garden in Minnesota every week counts. Some guides give us as little as 115 growing days. If you’re planting with the seasons, I’d say more like 140, and adding a low tunnel or cold frame can easily take you to 200 growing days- if you plant cold tolerant veggies.

Just Keep Planting

Being able to start the majority of your garden from seeds allows you to try so many new varieties. And you can stagger those plantings (called succession planting) to keep eating fresh from the garden all season long. Being able to replant a garden bed two to three times makes your gardens so much more productive!
Succession Planting to Extend Your Harvests

Good Garden Layout

Being able to get your garden out of your head and down on paper is a game changer. Taking the time to do this step, and redo it a few times- saves time and frustration later in the season. Being able to dream in plants and meals in the depths of winter makes the frozen months easier too. It will 100% add to your harvests and overall joy in the garden come summer and who isn’t looking for that!
Garden Design Class

Know Your Farmer

I can’t come close to growing it all, nor do I want to try on this city lot. So, I heartily rely on my local farmers. Building relationships with the people who grow my food is one of the best things I’ve ever done for my garden. It allows me to not worry about trying to grow enough sweet corn to feed my family- a truly daunting undertaking to being with. Instead, I know a few farmers who grow amazing sweet corn, that I purchase to can and freeze. This frees up my garden space for things that I can grow well.
Winter Farmers Market
Farmers Market Shopping Tips + Tricks

Compost

The simple, completely natural act of composting is an impactful way to up your garden game. There are so many ways to compost, and not many ways for it to go wrong. Nature knows what to do when you put a bunch of organic matter together, I promise. Keeping veggie and yard waste out of landfills is so simple and you get garden gold out of the deal. This was the first blog I ever wrote, so be gentle if you read this one, but the information is still sound!
Composting Basics

No Dig Works Wonders

I grew my first real front yard garden this year and it pushed me out of my comfort zone in a few ways. And I was greatly rewarded in new friendships, more food, and a new understanding of the power of sheet composting. In the last few years I have added many new garden beds and edible landscape space with both sheet composting, hugelkultur and lasagna gardening techniques. It is the way I plan on continuing because it is easier and grows amazing food!
Building a No Till (Lasagna) Garden

Add More Flowers

Adding flowers and more bio diversity in general is also called Companion Planting. Planning for more diversity, with veggies, flowers, annuals and perennials will bring in the pollinators and give your garden the natural defenses to fend off attacks from many common garden problems- from insects to diseases.
Companion Planting Flowers for Veggie Gardens

Add More Fruit

I will always add more fruit! From ground covers, bushes, canes, trees and vines the diversity of fruit is every bit as exciting as the varieties of vegetables.

This was my first season getting a grape harvest and being able to snack on sun ripened grapes while in the garden was a new high for my whole family. I’m focusing more and more on perennials in my garden and loving the returns!

Keep Saving Seed

Saving seeds, and adding plants that are open pollinated, is a key to keeping me engaged on my garden journey. Knowing I am growing food AND seed still gives me those garden superpower vibes. Knowing what, how and when to save seed is a gift that I love to share. If you are new to the seed saving game, it starts with buying seeds that can be saved in the future…
Seed Saving Starts Now

Suburban Homesteading

In roughly 450 square feet of garden space in the 2021 gardens we grew a total of 543 pounds of homegrown goodness! *I forgot to weigh some of my potatoes* – but, this gives you a pretty darn good idea of what can be grown in roughly 550 square feet of garden space. On a larger scale farmers often anticipate about 0.5 pounds of produce per square foot.

We also tapped and processed over 6 quarts of maple syrup and brought in over 600 eggs from our little city lot. Not to mention the foraged foods we enjoyed.

I’m glad there will never be a way to quantify the bird songs heard, the butterflies watched or the underground microorganisms multiplied. But I do know it was a very good year in the garden and I can’t wait to see what the next one brings.

Now is a great time to dream and plan, I hope this helps you find some direction for your dreams. Cheers to each of you- and all my best wishes for a joyful and meaningful 2022!

Keep Digging in!
Michelle

The post Lessons from the Garden appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

Planting cover crop seed is an easy and effective way to practice good soil health on any scale. There are a few tips and tricks for having the best luck for home gardeners. Timing and seed selection are key!

General Benefits of Planting a Cover Crop

• Better Water Retention – soil with root mass holds more water
• Less Weeding – soil that is covered keeps weed seeds from germinating
• Reduced Disease – soil life diversity increases disease resistance
• Less splash up – having a physical barrier between the soil and plants reduces pathogens from infecting plants

What Is a Cover Crop?

Cover crops are plants, usually grasses or legumes in vegetable gardens that are grown to benefit the soil rather than for harvest. Planted during off-seasons or between cash crops, they prevent erosion, suppress weeds, manage pests, and increase soil fertility. They act as a protective, living mulch, improving soil structure and organic matter.

There are many different ways of cover cropping, from holding a field for a full year, or part of spring or over the winter. Because I succession plant so much of my garden space (from early spring to late fall), I don’t leave much of my soil bare at any one time. But one of the reasons I have incorporated cover crops is how easy it is to sow the seeds after harvesting a late summer crop.

There are many different benefits of planting cover crops in the garden. One is to build up organic matter in the soil. Another is using legumes to add nitrogen to the soil. A final reason is to help break up compacted heavy soil with plants that have think roots. If left to rot they create wonderful space in the soil for nutrient and water transfer. I see cover cropping as another way of Companion Planting for your garden.

Soil Health Starts with Cover

It always helps me to know the WHY behind whatever I’m doing. You too?

Before I started planting cover crops years ago, I took a deep dive into soil health. Asking, “Why are we planting seeds in the fall when they won’t have time to mature?” The basic answer is soil health.

When bare soil is pounded by rain it compresses it making it harder for roots, worms, nutrients and even water to penetrate. When bare soil is baked by the sun, it dries and cracks. Any existing soil life moves deeper down under ground and the existing organic material becomes stagnant and lifeless.

Adding a mulch like straw or leaves keeps a protective barrier on top of the soil, preventing both compaction and drying. Green mulches will also decompose over time adding organic matter to the soil. This makes it even more inviting for more varieties of soil life.

If you decide growing a cover crop isn’t something you want to do, try adding a layer of organic mulch (leaves or straw) to that bare garden soil instead. Your soil will reward you the following year!

On a large scale, we can see carbon dioxide levels rise after farmland is harvested and tilled—and the soil is left bare for months. The levels above the same areas drop drastically once crops start growing again in the spring. If you want to be wowed at the power of plants to create carbon sinks, watch this time lapse video from NASA.

Planting Cover Crops for Soil Health

When we feed the soil we keep it alive.

Cover cropping is a way to grow your own mulch which feeds the soil in different ways from organic mulches. By choosing which seeds to plant, you can choose what to feed your soil. Most home gardeners are looking to add some nitrogen, some organic material, and maybe help with breaking up the soil a little with their cover crop.

 Oats + Peas + Radish: I find great results with a seed blend of oats, peas and radishes. Specifically, a blend with these three seeds called Nitro Max Mix from Albert Lea Seed has done well for me. 

The oats create a thick mat of mulch keeping weeds down the following spring (see the notes on allelopathy below). The peas add nitrogen and the radishes break up the soil. I also blend my own with organic seed from my local feed mill. Locally, I know that EggPlant Urban Farm Supply also carries cover crop seed.

Another winner for home gardeners is Buckwheat. This plant is easy to cut back—but should be cut before the seed heads form so it doesn’t re-seed. Buckwheat is usually planted in the spring before a later succession of heat loving crops like tomatoes, peppers or zucchini. You can both leave the cut stalks or work into the soil.

Crimson clover is a wonderful way to add nitrogen (it is a legume). It can also be used as a living mulch. This is a great choice for attracting lots of pollinators. But make sure to chop after blooming before seeds set, or you’ll be growing it forever

How I Cover Crop

In Minnesota, I most often plant cover crops in the fall. Right after I’ve harvested something that required more digging than my normal no till practices, like potatoes is typical. Since I’m already digging into the soil, it feels natural to plant something that will build back soil relationships. This is part pf practicing no till gardening even though I’m planting.

Plant these crops 5-6 weeks before a frost or freeze will kill them off.

That’s another reason I prefer an oat-based cover crop: they always winter-kill. This is often a concern for home gardeners thinking about cover crops. With plants that die with freezing temperatures you don’t have to worry about the cover crop self-seeding the next season.

Get Planting

Direct seed into soil that was recently harvested from. I usually plant out in mid-September. Water and let it grow.

I often use a wire covering over the freshly planted seed to keep pests from digging into the soil. In the spring you’ll find a nice mat of dead mulch on top of the soil as well as a thick root mass still intact under the soil. These roots have kept a whole host of soil microorganisms closer over winter. This soil life would have had nothing to feed on and left otherwise.

I tend to plant transplants or larger seeded crops into these areas to leave as much of the soil as possible undisturbed come spring.

If you do need to till in the cover crop, it is recommended to wait three to four weeks to plant. Tilling in the dead plant matter will alter the soil activity to the point where your new transplants or seeds won’t do well.

Allelopathy Explained

Allelopathy is another way to harness the power of cover crops. This is a process when a plant secretes growth inhibiting compounds from its roots. Even cucumbers excrete a growth prohibiting chemical via their roots. But most people use this chemical warfare to their advantage with crops left in the ground. Oats are a great example. As the oat straw decomposes, creating a wonderful mulch, its also leaving behind a residue (phenolic acid) that prohibits seed germination.

Living Mulches

A living mulch is anything that keeps down other plant growth just by growing itself. It is worth mentioning within cover cropping simply because it is another sustainable way to keep the ground covered while feeding the soil life. I’m a firm believer in planting Dutch white clover in my garden paths. I’ve had great success with bringing in even more pollinators by adding clover.

Now the clover is slowly taking over the old grass. It requires less mowing and is easier to weed out of edges of gardens compared to the old existing lawn. Living mulches can also be used to simply shade out other plants.

Bottom line is to keep your soil covered for happier plants and a better harvest. So, tell me, have you cover cropped or will you now? What other questions do you have about planting a cover crop in your home garden?

Dig In,
Michelle

The post Cover Crops for Soil Health: A Comprehensive Guide appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

Succession planting is a simple way to harvest more food for longer in your existing garden space! I am constantly blown away by how many times and how much I can plant in my backyard garden beds.

Succession planting boils down to “out with the old and in with the new.” It’s the practice of planting one crop right after another is harvested. This practice can keep you eating fresh from your garden all season long, even after frosts.

Spoiler: Successful succession planting has a lot to do with planning and picking the right plants.

There are a few ways to go about this kind of planting.

1. Succession Planting: two or more different crops following each other in the same space
2. Staggered or Relay Planting: same crop with repeated plantings in the same space
3. Interplanting / Companion Planting: when you plant multiple things at the same time in the same space that mature at different times and mutually benefit each other.

For now, let’s focus on the practice of planting different crops one after another in the same space—what most people think of as ‘succession planting’. Many of the same plants that star in our Northern spring gardens do well when started in summer to mature in the fall. Choosing cool weather plants that can take a slight frost will grow your summer efforts into delicious fall side dishes.

Compare the same garden bed above in mid-May and mid-June. On the left is my earliest crop of cool weather crops. I started seeds indoors and planted out under cover. On the right is the same space after harvesting pounds and pounds (meals and meals) worth of food. The peas are still producing at the back, onions are bulbing up along the front, and bush beans are just popping through, but will have plenty of time to produce lots of harvests before fall frosts.

Shoulder Season: early spring and late fall seasons are referred to as
Low Tunnel: a piece of plastic kept up by a frame to trap warm air.

Gardening Terms

Digging In – Again!

Planting the same crop in the same space is as simple as pulling out a crop once you’ve finished harvesting and replanting. If you practice no-till gardening, you can even just cut at the soil level and leave the roots intact to keep feeding the soil while you start your next crop.

In general, look for quick maturing varieties. The ‘days to maturity’ should be listed on any seed packet. This is really helpful for figuring out if you’ll be able to harvest before winter comes knocking.

I grow in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. We generally see our first frost (32F) around October 1, and first freeze (28F) around October 13. If you plant on July 1, choose plants that mature in 90 days or less if they can’t handle a frost. You can also plant on July 1 if you’re plants take 110 days to mature, but can take a freeze.

FIND YOUR FIRST + LAST FROST + FREEZE DATES IN MINNESOTA

With roughly 140 days of frost-free growing, it’s good to choose some crops that can take the cold of the bold north! But if you want to extend your growing season by popping up a low tunnel, read more HERE.

Direct Seeding vs. Potting

I like starting most succession seedlings in pots or trays (only direct sowing roots crops like carrots and radishes) for fall crops. This gives them a chance to start growing earlier, sometimes weeks before the space is open in the garden. I can give them the perfect growing medium to really start the plant babies off right! I can also move the whole tray of seedlings to the shade on really hot days. This makes for less stressed seedlings, which means better harvests in the end.

When direct sowing in the intense sun of mid summer, cover direct with a thin layer of mulch to help keep the tops layer of soil damp enough to aid in germination. Dried leaves, straw or a burlap sack can work wonders. Consider sowing in an area that gets afternoon shade, or pop up a shade cloth to help provide a little escape from the intense afternoon sun!

Pro tip

Succession Planting Timeline + Plant Possibilities

There are so many veggies out there beyond the tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant—those heat-loving crops that need to be started in spring to fully mature. The following is a list of plants that have worked well for me for sowing as succession crops, but is far from complete. This is also what works best for my gardening zone.

Mid-June to Mid-July
Direct Seed

Beets: Being a root crop these can obviously take a little frost, and if you’re not as interested in the leaves, can take quite a bit! Beets are great to plant after early peas or bush beans come out for crop rotation. They can also work well after garlic is harvested. Consider planting beets in part shade mid-June through mid-July to keep from bolting. I love Burpee Golden, and am growing a new white variety this year, Avalanche! More about Beet Love HERE!

Bush Beans: Get these in the ground at the beginning of July and you’ll be eating fresh snap beans from the garden in no time, as the warmer temps get them germinated and growing fast. Early Contended is ready in around 50 days, most (we like Empress) are ready in 60–70 days.

Carrots: One of my favorite succession planting crops! Carrots take around 70 days to mature. But planting carrots roughly 100 days prior to first frost is recommended for fall carrots. You can also add mulch to the tops of carrots to harvest after frosts and freezes.  Most Nantes types and Calliope Blend are favorites for our fall into winter garden.

Kale: These are a great option at this time because even though they can take a little longer to mature, they can hold in the garden for harvesting well after frost sets in, being hardy almost down to 20F. Scarlet Kale holds amazingly well in our Minnesota late fall.

Mid June to Mid July
Start Seeds in Pots

I usually start the plants listed below in pots, keeping them covered with insect cloth while seedlings and ‘babying’ them by moving to shade or even the garage if the summer temps soar.

Summer Seed Starting Tip

Broccoli + Cauliflower: Start indoors at this time of year to avoid all the cabbage loopers. I’ve had good luck keeping in pots, under insect cloth until ready to transplant out end of August. I end up planting these in place of other brassicas recently harvested. Snow Crown Cauliflower and Emerald Crown Broccoli do well in my Fall gardens.

Cabbages: I tend to grow more Nappa varieties (Slow Bolt is a favorite, even in the fall garden) than anything which tend to mature in about 65+ days.

Pak Choi: These fast-growing white stalked Chinese cabbages are stars of my early Spring and Fall gardens. I tend to plant these after garlic is harvested. *These can take the least frost of any of the fall cabbages*.  Baby Choi varieties can be ready in 6 weeks, while my personal flavor favorite, Joi Choi, is usually ready to harvest between 50 and 60 days.

Early August

Peas: Direct seeding peas in early August tends to do best in our area. They take roughly 60 days to mature and love the fall garden. Plant wherever you can sneak in a trellis in summer, after early beans or even cucumbers if they are fading. I’ve seeded peas with cucumbers still growing as the bottom leaves have usually been removed by this time.

Radishes: These are easy to pop in between rows of other veggies, but love growing with carrots. I also grow between other brassicas. The beautiful and tasty Watermelon Radish does best in the fall.

Greens: Everything from arugula, lettuces, and spinach love the fall garden. Maturing in anywhere from 40 to 60 days, these are good options to direct seed or start in pots after you’ve taken out spent bush beans, brassicas, or even early potatoes. Winter Density is a romaine type that does great into fall.

First Week of September

Just enough time to direst sow one last round of baby greens, arugula, cilantro, radishes.

*Spinach Special*
Direct sow spinach in mid-September to overwinter in place for early spring harvests!

Pay Attention to Your Garden

Each season is different (this one being a great example of climate flux!). Observing your garden and watching the weather is important, also noticing the changing path of the sun will help with placement of fall veggies. The whole goal is to grow a little later into the fall and keep your garden producing into the ‘shoulder season’ wherever you are!

I’ve also got an article on Season Extension structures to keep you growing longer.

A Note on Seed Saving

As many of us begin to save more of our own seed, I’ll mention that planning out where you want to save seed from beans, lettuces, and peas (crops that take a longer time to set seed) before planting will make transitioning easier. Keeping an out-of-the-way spot for a row of beans to keep growing into fall, or for a head of lettuce to flower and seed is a beautiful and sustainable part of the garden process. For more info on saving seeds, read my “Seed Saving: Vegetables” post.

These are all general guidelines as each season can be vastly different (as any Minnesotan will proudly remind anyone willing to listen), but these dates and plant varieties give you a good idea of when you could plant which vegetables to keep eating from your garden well into fall, and even winter!

Dig In (Again),

Michelle

The post Succession Planting to Extend Your Harvests appeared first on Forks in the Dirt.

Seeds are nothing short of magic!

You hold this seemingly inanimate object in your hand. Once you place it in soil, give it some water and light it GROWS! And it keeps growing, giving pollinators a purpose and habitat, sequestering carbon, building soil, and giving you food—plus providing its own seeds to continue the process.

Being part of this process ties us back into nature in a way that very few things can. And more of us are feeling that pull back to nature as gardening continues to grow as a hobby and passion across the globe. There are so many ways to start seeds, from Winter Sowing to Soil Blocking here we’ll focus on starting seeds indoors, under lights.

*This post contains affiliate links*

Why Start Seeds?

On a more practical level, an obvious benefit of growing a garden from seed is major cost savings. A packet of seeds is usually less than the cost of a single small potted vegetable or herb start. Add perpetual savings if you can save the seeds that grow from the plants as well. More about this in my article, Seed Saving Starts Now.  

Remember only open pollinated varieties are recommended for seed saving, as these are the only kinds that will grow back ‘true to type’. Many seeds sold are hybrids, meaning that they took certain traits from two different plants and combined them. Growing seeds saved from those hybrids will likely revert back to parts of their parent plants, sometimes with really funky outcomes!

Plant Diversity

There are thousands more varieties of seeds to choose from compared to the numbers of plants available to purchase already started in nurseries. I counted over 100 lettuce varieties in one seed catalog! This is similar to the differences in selection at the grocery store versus a Farmers Market…

Plus, you can choose seeds for fast maturing, cold tolerant, different colors (like carrots) and so many other traits. Not to mention that saved seeds become acclimated to the conditions they grow in. You can also play more with Companion Planting when you choose your own seeds.

How To Start Seeds

Timing

The golden rule of seed starting is to not start them too soon!

Seed packets give maturity dates—those will give you dates that you can harvest *from days after transplant*. Many companies suggest a number of days or weeks prior to average last frost date. For my growing zone (4b) the typical last frost date is generally around May 1–10, but this is changing due to climate chaos.

You can also start seeds a little earlier if you plan to transplant them out into the garden under cover. I usually pop up a simple low tunnel to protect my peppers and tomatoes. I make these simply by pounding some stakes (rebar) into the ground, and then sliding over some hollow PVC pipe, forming it into a half circle, then draping some sheet poly over that. Bricks and clips keep the plastic in place.

My basic seed starting schedule:

10-12 week prior seeds = beginning of February

8-10 weeks prior seeds = mid-February

6-8 weeks prior seeds = beginning of March

4-6 weeks prior seeds = mid-March

I grow in Minnesota, Zone 4b/5a

Seed Planting Prep

Trays + Pots

Before you get planting you’ll want to sanitize whatever you’ll be using for seed starting by washing in hot, soapy water and scrubbing off dirt, then soaking in a bleach solution (if 8% bleach use one tablespoon per gallon of water) for a few hours. Rinse well and let air dry. This is important to avoid the fungal disease of damping off, which kills seedlings.

Soil Blocking

I love Soil Blocking so much I wrote a whole separate blog post about it! Read that article HERE !

Also, I give you THIS VIDEO clip of the OG Soil blocker and legendary organic Gardener, Eliot Coleman.

The standard for seed starting trays is the “1020” which is roughly 10” X 20”. I use a solid 1020 with a mesh 1020 nestled inside this for my soil blocks. I also have an assortment of older pots that I use to plant into, always with a solid 1020 tray underneath. I Absolutely swear by Bootstrap Farmer’s trays. They cost more up front but will literally never need to be replaced- so much stronger then the box store trays!

Seed Snails

I’ve also just started some seeds in a ‘Seed Snail’. This method reuses old bubble wrap or polyethylene foam (that thin and flexible packing foam that comes in long strips between electronics). You simply add dampened soil on the flattened foam then roll it up, and plant the seeds on top.

This is a big space saver because the roots only grow into the neighboring plant. I am so curious to see how I like this method compared to soil blocking. I’ve got a YouTube video on it up too.

Seed Starting Mix

Start with a sterile seed starting mix. Do not use regular garden soil, or already used potting mix. There are quite a few good brands out there, I prefer Promix if I’m buying a pre bagged blend. But for when I do my main seed starting, I mix up my own, to be able to control the exact contents (yes, I am a bit of a control freak!) and to save money!

I’ve recently written an entire blog all on making the best Seed Starting Mix.

I’ve got a YouTube Video on my soil mix for starting seeds in trays. There are many ways to create a good seed starting mix. Here’s a link to my Amazon page if you’re interested in seeing all the products together.

I buy compressed bricks of organic coco coir, like these, to make up about half of this mix. I get roughly 3 gallons from one compressed brick after letting it expand for a few hours. So in the Mix recipe below, the 3 gallons = the 6 parts.

Seed Starting Mix
6 parts coconut coir or peat moss (1 brick coco coir =~3 gallons = 6 parts)
2 parts compost or 1-2 parts worm castings
2 parts perlite or vermiculite
1/4 cup blood meal
< 1/4 cup bone meal
< 1/4 cup Azomite (aka rock dust)

soak coconut coir for at 2+ hours prior to mixing, wet more after mixing

Germination

Heat mats

In general, seeds germinate better a little warmer than we keep our northern climate homes in winter. However, there is wide variation here, as I start pea seeds outside in 45F soil. But in general, you’ll get a higher germination rate and quicker germination with the use of a heat mat. Most seed packets or a quick online search will tell you the exact best temperature for germination. These heat mats are plug in units that sit under a regular 1020 tray.

Cover Them Up

After watering seeds in you’ll want to keep them warm and damp. The simplest way to do this is to cover the top of the soil. We’ve all seen the clear plastic domes, to help keep in the humidity. These work well—as long as they are removed as soon as you see green popping up! Keeping the soil and emerging seedlings covered too long invites molds, which are a seedling’s worst enemy.

Grow Lights

There are so many options out there for indoor grow lights. You can get a regular fluorescent ‘shop light’ and do well by your seedlings. But there are some specific benefits to different kinds of light that mimic natural sunlight more—or focus on parts of the spectrum that plants need most. This is a deep subject, and if you’re interested in more info, this podcast on Joe Gardener’s site where he talks with Leslie Halleck covers it really well.  For me, I use these T5 LED Grow Lights and I’m really happy with my results.

Watering

Just like watering plants in the garden, you’re going to want to water the soil not the leaves. And since we’ve got them in trays, we can actually water from below. This will help water more evenly and more fully, hence less often which is also better for root development. You also decrease the ‘splash up’ and most of the chance for fungal and mold (damping off) problems. There are systems you can set up for this, but I still prefer to lift an edge and hand water—it gives me a chance to check on the individual plants better as well. You are going to want to let the top layer of soil dry out a bit, and keep in mind many more seedlings suffer from being over watered than drying out!

This will get your seedlings off to a good start, but the most important step is simply paying attention. Truly, this is the part that brings gardeners the most joy—tending to their babies, watching closely and responding quickly.

Tips for Growing Big + Strong

• When fertilizing seedlings, use a diluted (50%) form of organic fertilizer.

• Pinching off will help some seedlings (like flowers and peppers) grow stronger and produce better crops. Pinching off at the flower bud will keep the plant’s energy going into growing leaves and roots.

• If your seedlings get pests (like aphids) try spraying them off with the  ‘stream’ setting on a water bottle. If needed, you can mix up a simple organic pest spray: in a 1 Qt spray bottle, mix in 1 cup Olive Oil, 1 Tbsp Castile Soap, and then fill with water.

Finally, it will be time to bring them out into the garden…

Hardening Off  

This is an essential part of growing healthy plants, and one of my favorite seed starting tips. You’ll need to slowly acclimate your seedlings to the full power of sunlight, wind, and changing temperatures. This process is called hardening off. You’ll want to find a partially sunny spot, maybe up against a wall and not open to wind gusts. You start with bringing the plants out for 15–30 minutes the first day, and increase 30–60 minutes per day for a week. Only then will they be ready to live outside and be transplanted out into their forever home. Not giving them enough time to acclimate can give them ‘sun scald’ and set the plant’s growth back by days or weeks. This happens to me with some plant almost every year—so a little sun scald is just part of the garden game.

Transplanting

You should plan on transplanting once soil is warm enough for the crop—and as this varies greatly, refer back to the seed packet. Both soil and air temps need to be warm enough so I transplant my earliest plants under cover. Tomatoes, peppers, and other heat-loving plants will especially appreciate the warmer soil and air—plus protection against those dropping overnight temperatures.

A big part of gardening is watching what is happening and reacting to nature—so be patient with nature and yourself!

On a more philosophical level, starting from seed brings you closer to nature. Growing a bean vine with hundred of beans from a single seed is nothing short of magical. I hope you get to experience that magic too.

What was your favorite seed starting tip?

Can’t wait to Dig In!
Michelle

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