Plants and Flowers

The cabbage start to form heads in early spring and the plants look healthy and vigorous. The better choice for early spring is Early Jersey Wakefield with its distinctive pointed heads. Except for the Wakefield cabbage you can also plant a Savoy variety which has dark green, crinkled and blistered leaves.
Brussels sprouts often went into the garden at the same time as the early spring Cole crops. If you have suspicions that your plants may not have enough time to mature, you may plant them earlier than usually to see if they produce a better harvest in autumn.

Fall planted garlic grows tall with extremely thick stalks. To prevent weed growth in spring you may spread over the garlic bed a mulch of shredded leaves.
Very popular artichoke plants sometimes do not survive the winter and need replacement that you can find at a local greenhouse. Young plants are growing comfortably and may share a bed with lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower.

Growing your own tomatoes plants from seeds allows you to choose from a great number of varieties. If you are going to transplant your sapling, you should start six or seven weeks before. Starting earlier make no sense, as they will overgrow for transplanting. It is a good idea to use peat pots so that the roots will be disturbed as little as possible when transplanting. The saplings need some moist, but should not be soaked, they also need a lot of sunlight.

If you have no wish to face problems with tomato diseases, try growing disease resistant varieties. VNF varieties carry resistance to verticillium wilt, fusarium wilt, and root-knot nematodes. Celebrity and First Lady II are good disease resistant varieties. You can try some varieties at once to find the one you like best.

If you are purchasing the transplants, choose saplings with straight, strong stems about the size of a pencil. And they should have 4 to 6 leaves and no blossoms. Be sure to check carefully for signs of insects or disease both on the plants and soil.