Starting up again for 2014

After a long cold winter, we're starting up again for the 2014 planting season.  I just couldn't get into starting seed in February when the wind was howling, there were snow days every week, and it was below zero at night, so got a bit of a late start but hopefully will catch up.

I started Tom Thumb mini-head lettuce, a mesclun mix, kale, and spinach in mid-March, and the flats went outside for the first time on Sunday (I've been keeping them in the 50-degree basement under lights so they wouldn't bolt).  Should be transplanting those this weekend or so (weather permitting, looks like more rain in the forecast).

Peppers that should have been started in January or February were started a few days after the greens (March 15) and are just getting their first true leaves, I had some older seed from some exotics (nothing too hot) I wanted to use, if only to grow out for more seed, but this year in addition to the jalapenos and serranos, I've got Hinklehatz (a Pennsylvania Dutch heirloom) and Aji Limon (a hot citrusy-tasting chile from Ecuador).  On the sweet side, I gave up on bells (not a long enough season for them to get to a good size, much less ripen) and am growing a few different varieties of those "mini-sweets" that look a bit like a small chile, some longer "frying peppers" like Cornu di Toro and Sweet Banana, a round thick-walled pepper that looks a bit like a sweet cherry called Alma Paprika, and another long orange chile-looking pepper that's actually sweet called Tequila Sunrise.

I also started tomatoes over the past week (the latest I've ever started them, but that's another post).  Suffice it to say that the choices have expanded from my usual dozen varieties, I'm going to have to decide how many of each I want to grow out since I do want room for the peppers and other vegetables.  Either that, or I'm going to have to prep some new beds quick (thank goodness I still have a huge mound of really well-aged manure!).

The strawberries look like they've survived the winter, and need to be thinned, not all of the crowns I transplanted in the fall survived but the bed has expanded since last year.  The mulch will come off for good once we're above freezing at night.  The blackberry canes look good, maybe we'll have the thornless blackberries this year since we had to pull out so many of the wild ones due to spotted wing drosphilia (SWD) last year.  Too early to tell how the blueberries and raspberries fared, though I'm afraid there won't be (m)any apples this year due to the bitter cold winter.

Well, time to pot up about 200 peppers, will update on the tomatoes next week.