The calendar I marked indicates it's 11 weeks before the last frost. If you are going to consider starting your own seeds, this is the time in late winter to start those cold weather crops.
The ground outside is still frozen, the snow has turned to snirt and it has felt like an incredible cold winter. No better way to shake off those winter blues than the feel and smell of fresh soil! It may sound crazy but I find it very uplifting! A few days ago I started a flats of broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, onions, kale and artichoke. This is my first year giving artichokes a go...they are biennial plants which are not great for our New England climate however there are a few varieties out there that will flower there first year. I planted a new variety called Emerald that is thornless and productive it's first year...we shall see.
For the broccoli I planted 3 varieties: Packman, Blue Wind, and Purple Peacock. Packman is the tried and true variety that many home garden stores will sell, it is reliable and has good flower production. Last year I had great luck with Blue Wind, it was slow to bolt in the summer and gave me a lot of off shoots which were perfect for a side of broccoli. The Purple Peacock I grew last year and was quite pretty, almost a fuchsia color for the leaves but some rabbits took the florets so I didn't have a chance to harvest any.
I planted three varieties of cauliflower as well: Snow Crown, Cheddar and Purple of Sicily. Snow Crown was a reliable cauliflower for me last year and develops a slight pale purple hue when the weather got hotter. It did have some side production when I left it in the garden after harvesting. Cheddar is new for me to grow this year, it is an orange cauliflower...why not, right? It is supposed to have a higher vitamin content than other cauliflower. The Purple of Sicily was purely for the memories. When Chris and I were in Sicily last year, the daily farmers market in Syracuse had beautiful, flawless lavender cauliflowers that were sweeter than I have ever tasted...if this is successful in our New England garden I will be really happy!
The leeks are Megaton leeks, having never grown leeks this should be interesting. The onions are a sweet Italian onion (Cippolli) that I tried last year but failed as I started the seedlings too late, we shall see if this works out better. And lastly the Tuscan kale! I had this kale in my garden from several years ago...it overwintered twice and was incredibly productive. It never once bolted or turned bitter and the leaves were always consistent and not tough. Given the record cold we have had this winter I wasn't too surprised that there is no evidence of life in the kale canes. There are still of few piles of unmelted snow were some of the kale had been planted but I am not optimistic there is anything growing under it.
And now...I wait :).
