Bulbs that were potted in October can now be forced to bloom to bring a bit of color to winter s oppressive gray. (Bing Carbone/ For the Connecticut Post )
My gardening year begins in February. The long indoor month of January has been spent poring over seed catalogs and planning this year's garden on paper. The list of seed varieties has been narrowed down greatly, with an exuberant anticipation for several new vegetable and flower varieties to grow. The vast majority chosen, however, are the seed varieties that have simply performed well in the garden year after year.

In looking forward to this month, I've done several things that will ensure getting the seeds off to a fast start. First was a check on the soil supply. While some of the differences in blending of these products may seem trivial, they make dramatic improvements in seed and plant growth. Commercial growers can even specify exact grow mediums that regulate pH, water retention or drainage characteristics, aeration, porosity and fertilizer makeup.

For starting seeds, sterile soil-less mixtures are available and labeled as seed-starting soils. Still, from one brand to the next there are noticeable differences. Perhaps the most noticeable difference would be the size of the particles that make up the soil blend. Peat moss, perlite (a volcanic material) and vermiculite (heated expanded mica rock) make up the largest portion of these mixes, but it is the coarseness and the amount of each ingredient that provides the proper growing medium for the proper grow operation.

For example, very water-sensitive plants would require greater amounts of a coarse-grade

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perlite, which would create a mixture that lends itself to fast drainage. On the other hand, when starting seeds, a soil medium that drains well but also retains moisture is required. It's also difficult to plant tiny seeds into a mixture that is coarse with large clumps of perlite and vermiculite, so a fine soil blend is essential for seed-starting mixtures.Probably the worst thing that can happen to a gardener is having seeds that won't germinate or when those that do are of poor quality. Essentially, it's the same old story: You get what you pay for, and, while there are many other factors that determine fast germination and healthy seedlings, a superior soil mixture is the first fundamental procedure. You'll find an abundance of "seed-germination" soil-less mixtures, but they really do vary in quality from very poor to spectacular. The best even include fast and slow-release nutrients designed for beginning plants. HARBINGER OF SPRING In between the snow and rainstorms this past week, I thought I'd take a peek inside and bring the first of several dozen pots of bulbs indoors to be forced into flowering. Despite the up and down temperatures this winter, the majority of the bulbs potted up last October have had sufficient cold-weather conditions for bringing into bloom indoors. Unlike previous years, I took precautions with a fine-weave steel mesh to protect the bulbs from field mice, which can find their way into the pots and into the bulbs.

A week in the unheated garage and a drink of water is the first step. After that, the pots are brought into the warm basement and placed near a light source. Root growth that ceased during the cold months has now begun to resume and within two weeks the first top growth will begin to sprout. The first bulbs to be brought indoors are the hyacinths and the daffodils. Tulips need a bit more time out in the cold before they'll be ready to be brought indoors.Every two weeks another set of pots will be moved indoors, with careful attention paid to timing flowers into bloom for the Easter holiday. What a delightful way to bring in some early spring color in the middle of winter! After the flowers fade, I'll compost the entire remains, although many gardeners have success planting the bulbs back in the garden for future blossoming.

Forcing bulbs is not the only way to get a dash of spring in midwinter. Cuttings of forsythia gives impatient gardeners like myself a much-needed boost this time of year. It's also an excellent way to trim off congested branches or poorly placed ones, as forsythia has a tendency to become rather tangled. It certainly is easier to do the pruning now while the shrub is dormant.

All you need to do is place the cut branches into a vase of water. The indoor room temperature will force the buds to swell into long-lasting flowers. The yellow flowers pack a powerful punch and remind us that spring is just a mere 50 days away.LONG-SEASON LEEKS Leeks are known as the "gourmet's onion" due to their subtle and milder flavor when compared to onions. Leeks are also easier to digest and enhance and bind flavors together as few other ingredients. Leeks can be outrageously expensive in stores and they are often impossible to thoroughly clean. Homegrown leeks have superior flavor and are such a trouble-free crop that no garden should be without them.

As wonderful a gardener as my grandfather Maiden certainly was, I always wondered why the leeks he harvested never amounted to much more than "pencil-size" in thickness and looked more like a large scallion plant than the leeks I had viewed in seed catalogs.

I took on the task of growing leeks the next year and recall his hearty laughter after plucking a leek from my garden and handing it off to him; it was nearly the size of a baseball bat and his hands were barely able to grasp it around its stem. He'd asked how in the world I'd grown such an enormous crop of leeks, and I certainly think part of the success can be attributed to an early start of the seeds indoors.Normally I plant leeks by the third week of February, however the last few years I was never really happy with the size of the transplants that go into the ground in early April. Even with the head start, the leek seedlings were barely the size of a strand of spaghetti. The small seedlings often had trouble surviving torrential spring downpours and their small size made them especially vulnerable to hungry crows that easily plucked them from the soil.I've changed my leek indoor planting schedule to the first weekend in February, give them more room to grow in larger pots, and continue a regular liquid feeding regimen every two weeks while indoors.

Leeks develop especially long roots, so I use eight-inch-deep pots filled with a soil-less planting medium instead of using flats. The deep pots will encourage plenty of long root growth.

I've grown the variety known as Giant Musselburgh every year, for more than 20 years, and I'll never be convinced that there exists a better type to grow. A packet of the shiny black seed is sown rather thickly, as leeks are notoriously poor germinators. A quarter inch of soil will cover the seed and a generous drink of water will get them off to an extra early start. I won't need to transplant them into a different container, as they'll go directly into the ground from here.FROM THE MAILBAGQ: Although I took special care to protect my green tomatoes that were picked last year, many of them developed sunken spots and rotted. I wrapped them in newspaper and stored them in a cool basement. Where did I go wrong? — P. Smith, OrangeA: I don't think it was anything you did, but rather a fungal spore known as anthracnose that caused your tomatoes to rot. This disease normally affects the tomato fruits (although the plants' leaves can become infected as well) and overwinters on garden plant debris. To control the disease in the garden, use black plastic mulch to prevent the spores from landing on the developing fruits. Other preventative measures include a thorough cleanup in the fall of all plant debris, rotation of your tomato crop plantings, and if the season is damp and the disease severe, Captan or chlorothalonil may have to be applied.