The Day I Planted Sprouts and Seedlings

Here I am, Diane Tunick Morello, standing
by my Greenwich Community Gardens plot 

Hello, world. It's April 14, the spring birds are trilling and the day is starting out at 50 degrees. I've been working eagerly this week to convert sprouts into seedlings. And yesterday I planted a few hardy vegetable sprouts in my plot at the Greenwich community garden.

Since I am brand-new at vegetable gardening, I take stock in what I learn about seeds, sprouts and seedlings. 

• Placing seeds in wet paper towels and then in Baggies generates sprouts fast, sometimes in only two days. A few sprouts take longer, such as peppers. Patience!
• In several cases, I emptied an entire seed packet into the wet paper towel. Not wise. Now I have more sprouts than I can feasibly grow. Use only a portion of the seed packets next year. 
• Sprouts are fragile, and they get intertwined with the fiber of the paper towels. Buy tweezers next year to remove seeds carefully from the paper towels. 
• My window sill at home is packed with egg crates to grow seedlings. Cucumbers are advancing quickly.
• Since arugula is a hardy vegetable (like other lettuces), I planted some sprouts in my new herb planter on the patio. We can harvest the arugula leaves before we fill the planter with warmer-weather herbs. 
• Aromatic vegetables come from aromatic sprouts. Experienced gardeners know this, but for me, the aroma of arugula emanating from itty-bitty arugula sprouts is deliciously heady. 

I went to the Greenwich community garden plot yesterday. It was warm,  upper 60s and 70s, and once again I was alone at the garden. Putting on my work gloves and my farmer hat, I cleaned out the garden bed using a rake, a wheelbarrow (ugh, clumsy) and a pitch fork. I kept a few parsnips and strawberries from the previous gardener. Hard work, but fortunately a small plot.

Along the bottom section of the bed I planted three cold-hardy vegetables: beets, radishes and carrots. I also experimented with cucumbers, which I suspect are not as cold-hardy. The cucumbers are a Spacemaster type, meaning they should grow upward into bushes rather than vines. When I head back to the garden today, I will replace the Baggies with labels and then use string to delineate the plants and the areas. It's easy to forget what I placed where and with what dimensions.  

Finally, I experimented this past week with a few vegetables on my windowsill, spurred by a terrific ShopRite video I found on Facebook. I put a two-inch piece of celery root in a glass, added an inch of water to the glass, then watched as the celery sprouted in the center. That was a surprise! I expected root tendrils to grow at the bottom, not to see the new celery sprout in the center. Could that be easier?

What are you learning this spring about growing vegetables? I will return soon. Right now I head out to enjoy spring weather in southwest Connecticut. Diane