Spring Planting is Here, Are We TOO LATE?

We need plant hundreds of potatoes, onions, and peas before it gets too hot outside or we won’t have anything to harvest.

My favorite source for Organic SEED POTATOES, ginger, turmeric, comfrey, rhubarb, elderberry and more. https://shop.growingfarmers.com/?ref=wxoemquk Use code BECKYPORTER for $5 off your order!

Garden Supplies/Tools:

Silage Tarps, Row Covers, Ground Cover, Shade Cloth, Irrigation Supplies- https://www.farmersfriend.com/c/the-seasonal-homestead
Soil Knife- https://amzn.to/3pmm4L4
Weed Torch https://amzn.to/3xm7Gpu
Weed Barrier Paper https://www.arbico-organics.com/product/weedguardplus-heavy-weight-rolls-smooth-creped/natural-organic-weed-control
Japanese Weeding Sickle- https://amzn.to/3Jy47jl
Favorite Large Tools- https://www.theseasonalhomestead.com/11-time-saving-garden-tools-for-a-large-garden/
Soil Blocker 2 inch- https://amzn.to/3Icy5ZX
Soil Blocker 4 inch- https://amzn.to/3VRvFp3
Soil Testing- https://rxsoil.com/nutrients?source=seasonalhomestead
Use code SEASONALHOMESTEAD for 10% off your order!

Garden Infrastructure:

Caterpillar Tunnel & High Tunnel https://www.farmersfriend.com/c/the-seasonal-homestead

Garden Attire:

My Favorite Garden Overalls- https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=2060467&u=3077997&m=126572&urllink=&afftrack=
Favorite Knee Pads- https://amzn.to/3LUDKVh
Garden/ Winter Boots: https://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=TYwrFVkpBYY&offerid=1471001.9&bids=1471001.9&type=3&subid=0
Garden Hat: https://amzn.to/49RjKx9
Green Garden Apron: can be found here https://amzn.to/43xtHha or here https://rstyle.me/+nENnhPD6cl7NTp-E_JtMKA

My blog: https://www.theseasonalhomestead.com/
Shop My Favorite Things: https://www.theseasonalhomestead.com/shop-my-favorite-things/
Music: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/5slh1q

Garden Planning & Preserving Journal:

Seedtime garden planner: https://seedtime.us/jkmel4ukl4tonac09iap-5fs?ref=becky-porter82
Amy’s (my sister) garden planner 2024 dated -printable pdf version: https://tidd.ly/3tGDkwv, for undated version click here https://tidd.ly/41CC5uZ
Amy’s garden planner -book version 2024! https://amzn.to/4aGThnl

Canning and Preserving Supplies:

Juicer: I have this one: https://amzn.to/47l5taa but you can find a similar one for cheap here: https://amzn.to/486YXoR
Freeze Dryer: https://affiliates.harvestright.com/1290.html
Dehydrator: https://amzn.to/3nV8JbW
Pressure Canner: https://amzn.to/42Hk0Lw
Waterbath Canner: https://amzn.to/3VYZgwD
Sauce Maker: https://amzn.to/43EFycq

Most links are affiliate links. Please know I will only recommend items I LOVE and use myself, at no extra cost to you, and it helps support the channel! You guys are the best! -Becky

#selfsufficiency #growingfood

there are a couple times of the year
when we feel a major sense of urgency to
get our food planted in the ground and
early spring is one of those times the
reason for that being that where we live
if we don’t get things planted at the
right time in early spring we won’t get
a harvest at all so it’s not because we
have a short growing season it’s because
our summers get super hot so crops like
potatoes onions and peas if we wait too
long we won’t get Harvest at all or the
Harvest will yield a lot less so it’s
really important to get everything in
the ground on time so this spring season
we are about 2 weeks behind on just
about everything and I am super nervous
about it because as most of you guys
know we grow all of our own vegetables
we don’t purchase any at the grocery
store so if these major crops for us
like the potatoes the onions the peas if
those don’t produce we just won’t have
any this year and we’ll have to make up
for it some other way so we are going to
hustle as much as our usual daily life
will allow and get these crops into the
ground and all the family is going to
pitch in so that we can do it as quickly
as possible when we are planting
potatoes we make sure that we plant
enough that we have some for eating and
then some that we can save for seed so
all of the potatoes that we are planting
here are ones that we had saved for seed
with some exception so I I set aside any
that I harvest the year before that were
not properly covered and had some green
on them I I harvest those for seed and I
put them in a separate basket and they
have these nice strong green shoots on
them and these ones with the longer
white shoots those were actually the
ones that were for our eating so I
didn’t set aside enough of the one kind
so I’m combining both of these potatoes
they’re actually just one variety but
I’m mentioning all this because of the
way that they were stored and how one is
better for uh replanting and the other
is not but we just didn’t have enough so
I planted them both I’ve done this
before it doesn’t make a huge difference
actually I I’ve never really tested it
but when we get the Harvest at the end
it’s always pretty much the same so I’m
guessing that it doesn’t make that big
of a
difference this variety of potatoes is
kbec and we have been planting these for
the last 3 years I never had success
with having enough potatoes until I
started to Plant Organic seed it was
very expensive to purchase but ever
since I bought these every year
thereafter I have not had to buy it
again so it was a worthwhile expense I
was checking under the burlap where I
planted the carrots there are some that
are sprouting and so I’m going to take
this burlap off because that was all
purpose just to get them to sprout and
also there are a lot of pill bugs under
this
burlap which normally just eat decaying
matter but when you have a wet area like
this and you have a lot of pill bugs
they can come across and eat seedlings
too so I’m making sure I get this burlap
off right away here when I planted these
carrots was a little bit concerned that
they would not germinate well just
because the compost was not fully broken
down so I put down a lot of carrot seeds
down the rows and when I took off the
burlap I saw that they had germinated so
well maybe a little bit too well because
I put down so many seeds so I’ll
probably have to go back and thin them
but I would rather have that problem
than have not enough pop up so I was
very happy with how it turned out with
the burlap I usually
use Burlap to cover the carrot seeds in
the spring and when we get to summer
instead of using Burlap to germinate
carrot seeds I will use silage tarp with
the white Side Up it really helps to
keep the heat off there and helps the
seeds to germinate
better that’s good that’s probably good
and then we need we have been growing
lemon trees in pots for a couple of
years because we are not in a warm
enough growing zone that we can leave
them outside all year so so they go
outside in the summer and then I bring
them in in the winter so a couple of
years ago I accidentally left my lemon
trees outside in a very hard Frost and
they got severely damaged a couple of
them died but one of them survived it
was this one and the rest of the
branches died back and then it started
to grow new shoes so I was excited about
that and so for the other ones that died
I replaced those I bought some new ones
every winter I take these plants inside
and I am confessing something to you
guys and that is that I am terrible at
taking care of plants when they’re
inside my house some of these plants are
not in great shape so we potted them up
we added some more compost some more uh
soil we added some prebio soil Prebiotic
to this and a little bit of fertilizer
so they’re all set happy they’re in a
warm place so hopefully they will just
shoot up in growth from here on
[Music]
out that same day I started to work on
another Garden task that I needed to get
done and that was getting my shelling
peas planted but to do that I had a job
to do beforehand and that was to get
this entire garden bed all heeded and
prepped and ready to go baby on a ride
look go with me getting tired kind of
hard to do with one hand I need your
pouch it’s April 2nd and I cannot
believe it but I am actually harvesting
strawberries from inside my tunnel today
I have one set of strawberries in here
and I have an identical set that I got
from the same Source planted the same
time outside and the ones outside are
not even close yet I’m guessing I
probably have about another four or 6
weeks before I pick my first with these
ones in here I got my first strawberry
on March 17th and it looks like I’m
going to be picking quite a few from
here today I am weighing how many I get
because I want to compare inside here to
outside there the yields as well to see
if there’s any difference in yields this
is what I got from today’s Harvest
there’s definitely more here but I’m
waiting until they’re super red just
because I can and this is a home garden
and I can wait till they’re in perfect
condition before I harvest all the way
one little problem that I’ve been
dealing with on the strawberries is
I thought it was slugs at first but it’s
actually pill bugs chewing on these a
lot of times when you look online it’ll
say no it’s not pill bugs it’s slugs and
you’re just not seeing them I have
checked night and day and all at all
hours and I see Zero slugs on these
strawberries I really think it is the
pill bugs and I’ve had this problem in
another Garden I don’t care what they
say online I think they’re chomping my
strawberries cuz normally pill bugs
would just eat like decaying organic
matter um I think they’re actually
eating these and part of the problem is
I have this paper down where the
strawberries are so they love to like
gather underneath that the other thing
is I was just getting my carrots to
germinate so I had watered from above in
here so there was a lot of moisture and
they were gathering because of that so
an option is I could just sprinkle some
dious Earth here and that would probably
take care of it but I’m actually going
to wait it out that’s part of my normal
Pest Management strategy is having a
little bit of patience because a lot of
times those problems will take care of
themselves I’m not selling these
strawberries so it’s not like I have a
big loss yet if I was losing a lot of
strawberries I probably would just put
that dious Earth on there but the dious
Earth is food grade and it’s edible and
stuff so I don’t I don’t have a problem
putting it on from that perspective it’s
just that it can have effects on more
than just pill bugs and so I like to
wait just to um make sure that I’m not
affecting other bugs as well
well I think
my I think my weighing isn’t going to be
quite accurate cuz I have somebody
picking these in fants hey if you’re
going to pick it you might as well eat
it my sister Amy and her family were
here over the last couple of days and
and Amy came out and helped me to get a
garden bed all prepped and ready for
peas we planted those it had rained all
day the day prior to us going outside
and doing this so it was not an ideal
time to prep this bed for planting
because really you’re not supposed to
work the soil when it is wet like this
but we were not um tilling or going in
super deep we were just kind of doing a
surface hoing
and so it worked just fine we planted
the seeds with the earthway cedar this
was Amy’s first time ever using the
earthway or any cedar at all and she
really liked how fast it was compared to
planting by hand it really saves a ton
of time today I was going to put some
compost down on top of the peas just to
keep them fully covered and to keep
other weed seeds from popping up but I
came out here and I changed my mind
the row next to the pieas has a lot of
weeds and I want to make sure I get
those out of here before I put the
compost on cuz I don’t want any wheat
seeds flying from one row to the other
so especially the dandelions are out
right now so I’m going to get all of
that removed from that row and the row
next to it and then we’ll put the
compost on after that
after we got that adjacent row all
cleaned up and the weeds out of there we
went ahead and started to put down some
compost on top of where we had planted
the peas we have been using this wood
frame that we built to lay down the
compost on the garden beds to keep
everything neat and tidy and I didn’t
really have to use it here but I really
love how it delineates where the garden
beds are so we just laid down about an
inch and a half of compost over top of
the peas instead of a full 3 and 1/2 in
which is how high this Frame is so just
halfway up that so that the piece still
could Sprout up over the top the other
thing that we worked on this day is we
wanted to cover the potatoes with some
compost at this point our compost pile
is extremely low so we were pretty much
using up the last of the compost we had
to cover the potatoes I still haven’t
covered them all the way we need to go
and get some more compost we had family
in town and then we went to go see the
eclipse and I’m feeling a little bit
behind on some of my seed starting so
I’m getting started on some of my
tomatoes today which are a big one for
me and I usually don’t start them until
about a month before our average last
frost in the tunnel I’m about 2 weeks
late for that but it’s okay we have a
long season so so I do have a little bit
of wiggle
room
yay uh last night I made up seven soil
block trays and then it was time for me
to go make dinner so I didn’t actually
even see anything so this morning we’re
going to finish this up and sew some
tomatoes in these trays
[Applause]
[Music]
he’s picking his own food already
good he’s such a mess he’s going to eat
all those yeah he
will now he knows like go for the red
things prior to this growing season we
had a very small area to start all of
our seeds for our large garden and one
thing that I really didn’t realize or
recognize was how much uh a bigger area
would benefit us and how much time that
would actually save so it does take
quite a bit more time to start all these
seedlings and then transplant them but
because I am not direct sewing I am
weeding a lot less and so it’s saving me
time in that
regard there pull out some’s going to
fall still pretty
tough C yes here we are on the final
home stretch of the crops that we
planted in the spring that are really
important to get in the ground so we are
planting our bulb onions I started these
from seed back in February honestly
these ones I’m not two weeks behind I’m
a month behind in what I normally plant
but we wanted to wait until they got a
little bit bigger this time than when we
usually put them in the ground the
reason for that being we wanted to do
less weeding than last year and when we
put them in the ground so early and
direct sew them we are always dealing
with more Wheats so we figured if we let
them in the seed trays a little bit
longer some of these I I actually potted
up but not all of them I left them in
longer they were able to get bigger and
I’m just really hoping that they are
able to put on the same amount of growth
that they usually do another thing that
we are doing different this year is we
are using a drill to make the hole to
plant the onion in and we used this
method for our garlic last fall and it
worked amazing I wish we had figured
this out sooner I’m planting these
pretty shallow because I want to put
some compost on the top of them and we
are out of compost right now as I
mentioned so we need to go and get some
we do not make enough for our whole
garden so we picked that up at a place
that’s semilocal it’s actually about an
hour and a half away but they sell
organic compost and it’s pretty much the
best stuff around us that I’ve found we
have to wait until a weekend or Cam
takes a day off of work so that we can
go and get that so it’s kind of a a big
ordeal but once we get it we’ll be all
set for a little while so for these bulb
onions I like to do three rows across on
a 30in bed and then for the spacing in
between each of the onions is I think
it’s 6 in and then the spacing between
each of the rows is 10 in I’ve done it
this way for a lot of years and we
always have good results from it we got
it all done all of the spring crops that
I needed to get in the ground are now
planted with the exception of I still
have a few more onions to plant but the
potatoes are in we’ve got snap peas snow
peas shelling peas and all of the bulb
onions are planted now so
I can breathe a big sigh of relief and I
just feel so much better so we’re going
to hope and pray that we get a nice Cool
Spring and Summer and we get a good
harvest this year all the same
[Music]