getting ready to plant onions and celeriac

Yeah! It's time to begin planting indoors. This weekend I'll clean some of my old planting pots and trays and get out the seed packets and potting soil. So fun to get my hands into soil again.

I used to plant onion sets instead of seeds, but onions grow bigger and are less disease prone from seed. It's a stress on the plant to hold it as a little bulb then get it growing again. its really easy to grow onions from seed. Only two tricks, get the right variety for your area - in the north, grow long day onions. I like Pontiac, White Wing and Red Wing from Johnny's Seeds, but there are many long day varieties. The other trick is to start them early, 11 weeks before your last frost. Count bhack from your frost date, or download my calendar app.

Onion seedlings like to grow fairly dense. Scatter the seeds about a half inch apart in a small tray, like a saved lettuce container. I'll use smaller pots so I can grow fewer amounts of more varieties. And I like to have some small pots to give away. you can still fit a lot of onion seedlings in a small pot.

it's time to start planting!

The first event on my planting calendar is winter sowing. Many flowers need a cold period and winter sowing in plastic milk bottles is an easy way to start these seeds.

I used Skippy's Flower and Herb Calendar App to make my sowing calendar. I have a large new bed at the front of my vegetable garden that I want to fill with flowers for my bees (and me) this year. So, I'm looking forward to starting lots of flower and herb seeds.

Today I planted seeds in four bottles: Anise hyssop, wild NE asters, a bee mix, and a butterfly mix.





I collected my plastic milk bottles from Starbucks. I was a bit disappointed because I asked at the counter if they had empty milk bottle they could give me and I was told "no". But I since I saw them using lots of them, I went around back to their dumpster. Lot's of empty gallon bottles there. (I wonder why they weren't recycling them?) I pulled out four, a bit smushed and scattered with coffee grounds. There was even a nice paper bag to transport them. (Other places I've found plastic bottles are my Town recycling center, and curbside bins on recycling day).

Directions for winter sowing in plastic milk bottles are in the app. Also on my previous winter sowing posts.

app update - reminder bug

Now that our Flower & Herb Calendar App is out, my programmer Amelia and I are working on our next App update. We'll update the Vegetable Calendar App to fix the reminders function, which has bugs for users of iOS 9+, and iOS7 or 6 (e.g. iPhone 4 users). We expect to get this update out in about a week. Thanks to the users who let us know about this bug.

And thanks again for using our apps! Let us know any other questions or suggestions for the apps.

new app! --- flowers and herbs

Our new app is out! A planting calendar for Flowers and Herbs. $1.99 at the apple Store. 60 varieties with sowing times and methods. The calendar starts soon with winter sowing of varieties that need cold stratification.

Apple store link: Skippy's Flower & Herb App

get ready to plant seeds!

We have an update out for Skippy's Vegetable Planting Calendar app. It now has 50 vegetables to select from.

If you haven't tried the app, it's very easy to use. Select from Spring, Fall, or Winter planting season (or all three), enter your frost date, select the crops you plan to grow, and the app creates your personalized calendar. Your planting tasks will be listed by the week. It includes sowing, transplanting, and succession planting dates.

It's a cute little tool to have handy on your mobile device for only $1.99. I do all my seed planting with it. And, I added a like button on my side bar. Please LIKE the app if you've used it!

app reviews please :-)

We could really use some reviews of our seed planting app. For any one who used it last year, could you give it a brief review? Here's the preview link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skippys-garden-spring-planting/id970091991?mt=8. Click "Open in iTunes" and then click "Reviews". Thanks!

Here are reviews a few gardeners left for us last year, but they didn't post them to the Apple Store.

"Thanks for the nifty app! " - MIchaeldg
"Love the simplicity... Very easy to use... very useful" - Mayhew
"It is a wonderful app....I will be able to carry it with me to the garden without printing out my garden plan. I especially love the transplanting calendar because most books and seed packet instructions do not tell you when to transplant. - Nancy

BTW - We are making a bunch of upgrades this month for release in January - just in time for 2016 seed planting! Let us know what upgrades you would like.