Getting Ready for Spring Planting

It’s time to start your spring seedlings for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and many other spring vegetables. If you have a really bright window, you might be able to grow these inside without a grow light.  We feel the best approach is to purchase a relatively inexpensive grow light set up, and possibly a heat pad if you have cooler temperatures in your home or wherever you’re going to be growing the plants.   

At the very least it’s time to order your seeds for both spring and fall crops. If you wait until summer to order your fall seeds, they may be out of stock. That’s been happening in recent years.  

Instructions for starting seeds under grow lights can be found here, and instructions for building your own at even less expense can be found here: 

This is also the time to get a soil test. If you want to add soil or amendments to your garden to produce the most successful crops, a soil test is essential. Pick up a soil test kit from the UF/IFAS Leon County Extension on Paul Russell Road and follow the instructions for gathering your samples and sending them to Gainesville. Response is usually received by email within a week or so and you’ll have plenty of time to add the necessary amendments to your garden.

We’ve created a new soil amendment reference available on the left side bar under Resources that details the amendments which will provide the nutrients you want. It can also be accessed at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mlx54uYqsD3p7GZk8U8H_AR0gcG6ecH3/view?usp=drivesdk.

We hope this year produces your best garden ever.