Hi Rachel, For sure, you need to have time for your dirt to thaw and warm up.. I have a few big bags in the little barn, and I have only brought one in the house so far.

Helicop: I know your area, and in a general things, you don't want to plant anything outside before May long weekend and even then sometimes, you can have frost till the first week of june for the real tender plants .. now for greenhouse, that makes things a touch more tricky, because its going to let you do a lot of things early but how early really depends so much on what kind of day and night temps your greenhouse is holding, it also depends on if you have a cold sink in your greenhouse (raised beds, with a lower area in the middle of the greenhouse that the cold will "sink" into) also if you have any heat sinks in the greenhouse itself, example dark or black water barrels that take in heat all day from the sun and thermal and releases it back into the greenhouse during the night..

But in a direct answer.. Mid Feb is the time we want to plant onion seeds (not sets), and we are coming into our pepper seed starting inside, I recommend the baggy method for starting the seeds and then into their trays with a heated bottom. The next few weeks are perfect for starting your winter sow seeds in the greenhouse itself, and as for tomato's, your earliest ones that are going to go in the bigger pots for the greenhouse, you can start at the end of Feb, but hold off till mid-march for starting your larger numbers that will be moved to the ground outside May long.. AS for cucumbers, you can start them in mid-march, and have one or two big plants growing in the greenhouse for early cuc's but otherwise, just start four weeks from your may long weekend, just remember to harden them off really well.. you want them ideally short stout and thick at 4 to 6 true leaves when putting them out, so they should not be started to early.. for regular garden cucumbers.

Sounds like great plans for your coming year Dakota, its always a good thing to be studying what produces better for your area and for storage, I think many of us will be expanding our gardens this year to help grow more food.

Thanks farmgal! I knew you would offer some great info for Helicopilot. Wondering how different your growing is where you're at compared to here? We lived in Ontario on a farm near Base Borden for 3 years but I was much younger and don't remember.

raised in alberta the first 26 years of my life and had my own garden within my moms big garden from age of 8.. gardened very tradional as child-teen and even into early 20's but really eye open and extanded when in nwt an Nunavut.. had to learn new ways of things an doing..

I am zone 5 here on the farm..

Thanks for the tips indeed Farmgal! I have a day off today so I'll try to do some garden preps, including arranging pick up of pea straw bales and getting some seed starting soil. My next few weeks will be busy with work so I might be a bit late with starting the seeds, but better late than never.

Started my onions a week ago indoors, and some cabbage about 3 or 4 days ago, and everything is already sprouting! We had a nice warm weekend here in Niagara so I'm chomping at the bit to get the garden ready! I've got everything planned and scheduled out on paper, but I think we might get lucky and have an earlier spring than usual since its been so mild all winter. Over 10 Celsius here on the weekend!

Good thing I started my beets indoors because this snow would probably knock them all out. I've got all my see flats in a mini greenhouse under a heat lamp in the indoor porch!

while I have a few things started, I have been glaring at the long term forcast of march and been sitting on my hands, forcing myself to wait before I start the bigger seedling push, I am in holding pattern

while I have a few things started, I have been glaring at the long term forcast of march and been sitting on my hands, forcing myself to wait before I start the bigger seedling push, I am in holding pattern

Once again, I didn't get seeds started when I should have, and this year its a good thing. It is starting to look like a late spring and that is bad news with the hay shortage and all. I am going to have to find a creative way to get a large potato patch started and once again I didn't get the designated area ploughed last fall. Because of the drought, the ground was just too hard. I think its going to be critical to get the root veggies and squash patches functioning in high order/quantity as well. ASAP.

I was thinking of trying to plough the raw ground this spring and plant the potatoes in the furrows and mulching/hilling them in the trenches but mulch will not be overly available this summer either. The idea was to than disc and harrow the patch next spring. The good news is that I was able to grow and barely water a small potato patch last summer that produced enough seed potatoes for this year so I don't need to buy any seed potatoes. My goal is to at the very least, expand the amount of seed potatoes available for seeding next year. Best case, I figure out how to get a large planting this year in less than ideal conditions and get lucky enough to have eating potatoes and seed potatoes this year.

Had a snow dump in Alberta a few days ago, so things are postponed a bit. Started my tomato and pepper seedlings earlier this week.

Cucumbers will be started in a couple of weeks... Let's see how everything will turn out!

ok, Brussel sprouts, pepper plants are started and up.. waiting another week for tomatoes, ground cherries .. starting my hot peppers tomorrow.. need to do a little research on when to start my TPS seeds to get the timing right.

Outside we are covered in at least three feet plus of snow but the sun is warmer, and the river is open..

My kale was already 6 inches high in my one bed....waiting to see what it looks like when this sudden snow disappears.

I just got the last of the supplies that I need to finish of building 7 mini green house raised beds.

Ok, I am Zone 5, Ottawa Valley area..

First two weeks of March.

Currently starting Hot and Sweet Peppers, Brussel Sprouts, and Ground cherries.. I also have soft fruit seeds in cold storage for getting them ready to be planted out..

I am also starting a number of Fungus Spores that will be used as plugs into logs over the next four to six weeks

What are you starting? and what Zone are you gardening in?

I just started my indoor seedlings for 3 types of peppers, 2 types of tomatoes, eggplant, onion, lettuce, mustard greens, cantaloupe, snap peas and marigolds. This includes some of the seeds I bartered from another prepper last August at the Eastern Ontario Prepper Meet 😀

I also picked up most of the misc supplies I'll need to do up a decent backyard garden. I worked a community garden plot last summer (which did not work out), so I still have most of the tools ...minus the ones that were stolen from my plot 👿

In the past, I found my seedlings died of damping off, likely from poor air circulation, so this year I plan to put them in a warmer spot, and set up a fan to give them a light breeze...wish me luck 🙂

Well, I messed up... I've started my seedlings a few weeks ago (tomatoes, peppers and marigolds) and my cucumbers last week. It's been quite nice during daytime here so I brought my seedlings into the greenhouse (it's already quite hot/humid there during daytime, but gets to near freezing at night). I made the mistake of leaving the clear covers over the plastic trays while inside the greenhouse... So now everything looks dead from the excessive heat, except for the cucumbers that are already in large pots; these guys look happy. I hope a few survive my good-intentions-turned-bad-idea.