While Friday’s 70-degree temperature is very spring-like and you might have started thinking about your garden this year, it is definitely too early to start planting in Connecticut.
Henry Vasel, the owner of Sunny Farm in Rocky Hill, recommends people wait to plant vegetables until late May, around Memorial Day weekend.
Sunny Farm has already started growing vegetables using organic seeds and soil and then using incubators to get them started.
“After they come out of the second incubator, we acclimate them into a different variety of temperatures in the open greenhouse,” Vasel said.
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It’s a multi-step process to get from the two-to-three inch vegetable plants they are now, to the foot-tall ones customers will be buying in about a month.
“We have eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, carrots, celery, Brussel, sprouts -- you name it, we have it,” said Vasel.
If you plan to buy seeds, you should definitely start your plants inside, according to Vasel.
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In terms of buying pre-grown vegetable plants, you’ll have the best success if you wait to plant them in your garden until around Memorial Day weekend when temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees overnight.
As for the majority of flowers, shrubs and bushes, you should hold off at least another month as well.
Vasel’s advice is to start thinking about your garden now, buy early and prepare to spend more this year.
Transportation costs for trees and shrubs that come from as far as Oregon are through the roof.
“They have gone up a lot. And we've already been told that fuel costs will dictate the transportation cost after they arrive here. So we have no idea what the cost will be until they actually sit on our doorstep,” said Vasel.
Even costs for the business at Sunny Farm have gone up.
“Our greenhouses, we use 250 gallons of oil a week to keep them heated. As you can see, it's all plastic, which isn't the greatest insulator, but the cost involved to make a profit of 10 cents a plant. It's not always easy in the farm business,”Vasel said.
The cost for grass seed has also increased substantially this year, according to Vasel.
