Seeds orders, Chitting & Onion set planting

Checked the mail box today to find that my seed order & seed potatoes arrived. I like when things come in two's, it's double the excitement.

I ordered the seeds from seedmart on eBay and they had surprisingly fast shipping. I ordered the following:

• Sport Peppers - used on Chicago style hot dogs, seeded this evening
  
• Cilantro - seeded this evening
  
• Red Celery - fall crop
• China Rose Winter Radish - fall crop
• Florence Fennel - fall crop
• California Poppy - seeded this evening
  

The potato order is from Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes. They are located north west of use in Alberta, Canada. I was happy to find a Canadian company selling such a good mix of potato varieties as I can not order from the big suppliers to the south due to customs. They sell what they call a 'foursum' which is great for a small scale gardening like myself that does not need pounds of seed. I ordered Banana Fingerling which has a heavy set of yellow fleshed potatoes and Netted Gem Russet which are your typical long russet potato. They are both late season potatoes which are what you need to increase yield in your potato bin. I will also plant some red fingerling potatoes that I grew last year in a container.

Being that I still have many things to finish before I can actually plant the bin I am chitting the potatoes in a cool window. Chitting is a good way to get a head start on your potato season without planting your potatoes outdoors. Simply place your seed potatoes in an egg carton, eye's facing up and keep them in a cool bright spot, 10c(50f) is best. Then in 3-6 weeks the potatoes will form short buds and are ready to be planted out. Chitting is also a good way to get a head start on the season with out the concern of frost damage.

The Red Fingerlings I found tucked away in the basement from last fall. They have sprouted fairly long buds so I put them in a plastic bag with a little damp potting soil and placed them in the fridge. That should slow them down until it is time to plant.

I also spent a few minutes this evening planting my onion sets. I figured I would do it after Mondays heavy rain and during Tuesday & Wednesday light rain. I planted a little over 14' in a few rows around the garden. I have about 1/2lb of sets left so I will store them in the fridge and planting them here and there once the garden is in to fill in spaces.

Here they are being planted in some of my well rotted compost
at the packages recommended spacing, 3" apart & 1/2" deep.
They seem a little close so I may take every other one out or thin
as green onions later. How do you space your onion sets?

One of the two straight rows I planted

I planted two of these squares to go around what will be the Romanesco
Broccoli in the middle of May. That is the Kohlrabi in the middle.
Looks pretty good I must say.