This is just a brief winter garden update I am giving before sharing some spring gardening ideas with you! The winter container gardening situation in Southeast Texas can get very interesting. With temperatures varying drastically for decent lengths of time, it can be difficult to maintain a winter garden in this area.
When the weather is cool, you are good to go with your winter crops. But then, when you get a warm spell, it may cause some of your cool winter crops to bolt and go to flower. Then, with the warm spells, it becomes very tempting to just plant some warm weather crops.
Parsley
With that said, the parsley from seed ended up growing beautifully in less-than-ideal conditions! It is definitely not the same sized parsley you are going to pick up from your local grocery store. So, the updated pictures are definitely worth taking a look.
Bok Choy
The bok choy from seed sprouts in a single day! The seeds turned out to be a different variety than the one shown on the package. Therefore, I kept waiting for the stalk to form, but they never did. With some research, I discovered it was a non-stalk forming variety of boy choy. Nevertheless, the mini harvest was delicious. The bok choy plants are very temperature sensitive. As soon as the weather warmed up, the bok choy with direct sunlight promptly bolted.
Spinach
The giant noble spinach from seed seemed to despise the first and the second container they were planted in. After they got a front row window seat with a proper potting mix and a proper garden container, they grew large, tasty leaves. Some were added to a salad mixture and others were just eaten straight off the stem. Potting mix is not the same as gardening soil.
Cilantro
The cilantro from seed grew well. With the seeds spread out in the container and not getting direct sunlight from the window, the cilantro grew lanky and leggy stems. Nevertheless, the cilantro that was harvested was delicious.
Rosemary
Twice the rosemary from seed sprouted cute little rosemary seedlings. And then they just died for seemingly no apparent reason at all. Coincidentally, a friend gifted me a rosemary plant shortly after planting the first set of rosemary seeds. So, fortunately there is sufficient rosemary.
In Summary
My little kitchen herb garden is coming along. So, now it is time to plant some spring edibles. So, stay tuned for some spring gardening ideas. What are you planting this spring?
THE RUHMAGE 