Last chance to start seeds indoors
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EmailStarting your own seeds indoors offers a greater opportunity for variety in your garden.
In February 2011, an article, 'Can’t wait to start those vegetables?' was published on Michigan State University Extension News letting readers know it was a good time to start planting seeds indoors. Now we have reached the time when you should have started or are putting in the last of the seeds you wish to start indoors. Several of our more common vegetables should be started anywhere from four to 10 weeks before last frost. These include: tomato, eggplant, pepper, cucumber, cantaloupe, squash and watermelon. You can still begin your broccoli and cabbage at this time too. Some flowers that you can start now are: zinnia, cosmos, marigold, cornflower, aster, phlox, nicotiana, verbena and snapdragon.
One of the benefits of starting your own seed indoors is home gardeners can grow many different varieties that may not be available from local nurseries as transplants. You may still start other kinds of plants indoors depending upon your frost free date. The easiest way is to count backwards from the frost free date in your area based on the information on your seed package. For example, if your seed package says start six weeks before last frost and your last frost is May 15, then you would have to start your seeds the first week of April. For details about how to start seeds indoors, you may find these resources helpful Purdue University Extension bulletin HO-14-W and University of Maine bulletin #2751e.
For more information about vegetable gardening in Michigan visit the Gardening in Michigan website.
