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If you’re ever looking for me, chances are you’ll find me in one of our two greenhouses with some students deciding which vegetables and herbs to grow for the upcoming season!  While you have probably seen the greenhouse outside the Fine Arts Cottage, we also have one inside our basement, and it’s a great place to start seeds, both winter and summer.  During the summer, the basement’s cooler temperatures result in less-stressed seedlings that don’t require as much attention as they would in the outdoor greenhouse where they dry out faster than we can water them!   In the winter, the grow lights, fans and heat mats keep seedlings warm and cozy until it’s time to put them outside in the gardens. Right now, we are starting our seeds in the indoor greenhouse largely because air and soil temperatures are still too high to sow seeds directly in the soil.  

In addition to meteorology, there’s also some math involved in seed starting! Beginning with Atlanta’s first predicted frost date (which averages November 13), we work backward using the number of days-to-harvest for a particular vegetable to select the best planting date. Sow too early, and seedlings won’t survive the heat. Plant too late, and tender plants will be killed off by frost, excepting those like kale that do better with a touch of frost which makes its leaves a little sweeter. Of course, there’s no way to know the exact date of our first frost – our earliest was October 25th and our latest was December 6th, so we just cross our fingers!

What’s growing right now?   We have already started some herbs (basil, marjoram, parsley and oregano) that we hope to sell at our Plant Sale at the Springmont Festival & Montessori Mile on October 5th!  Students will also start radishes, cabbages, kale, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussel sprouts in the next week, transplanting them into the main vegetable garden and class gardens as well as pots for the Plant Sale. Elementary children who come to Open Studio and Middle School students will also help to clean out the vegetable garden, amend the soil with our home-grown compost and either transplant or direct-sow seeds for the new season.

Once our fall and winter veggies are underway, we start our planning in January and sowing in February for spring and summer crops.  It’s always time to grow something!

See you outside!