Getting My Seeds Started, Right
This year will go down in history as the year I not only started seeds on time, organized all seeds by category (direct sow, indoor starts, and never-going-to-grow-it-so-trade-it-already), AND managed to draw up some kind of “plan” beyond casual (and quickly forgetten) mental lists. I rule. For now. We’ll see what happens when transplant buying season begins. I have a little problem with plant-related impulse buys that completely throw well-made plans out the window.
Regardless, bear witness to my awesomeness.
Nine containers were washed, filled with seed-starting mix and planted up with nine carefully chosen veggies:
- Hot Pepper ‘Fish’
- Sweet Pepper ‘Pepperoncini’
- Eggplant ‘Turkish Orange’
- Tomato ‘Broad Ripple Yellow Currant’
- Tomato ‘Sunrise III’
- Tomato ‘Silver Fir Tree’
- Tomato ‘Black Pear’
- Tomato ‘Ceylon’
- Tomato ‘Costoluto Genovese’
Two smaller 4-cell packs were washed, filled with seed-starting mix and planted with annuals:
- Nicotiana sylvestris
- Pansy ‘Can Can‘
The humidity dome pictured is actually a used plastic container that once held salad mix. I just flipped it over, making the lid my tray, and the container my dome. Good-sized take-away containers also work well.
I also transplanted the African violet seedlings that were grown from leaf cuttings. Some of the original leaves had good-sized stems so I recut them and started again.
The weather was beautiful a few days ago so I headed off to the community garden and popped in a few sugar peas ‘Carouby de Maussane’ (sweet peas with ornamental, purple flowers).
And finally, my newest seed shipment arrived this week along with a few recent trades. I couldn’t resist a pack of ‘Baie Vert’ pole beans from Colette’s stand at the Farmer’s Market this week. I am easily enticed by the words “rare heirloom” and back stories that involve trades between Acadians and Native groups. I just put in two additional seed orders today. The only thing I didn’t manage to get on my list was ‘purple mizuna‘. Regardless, if the stacks of seed packets are any indication, all of my bases are pretty much covered.
April 9th, 2006 at 8:55 am
I bow to your awesomeness. Good work!
I’m most impressed with your ability to limit yourself to the varieties listed here…I have way too many different plants on the go. Mostly tomatoes. But still I’m anxious for that round robin envelope to arrive so I can see what else I can squeeze in!
I didn’t grow ceylons this year. They’re pretty, though.
April 9th, 2006 at 10:22 am
It’s a space issue. I start my seedlings in the normal 4″ pots so I know how much space I’ve got to work with and can’t overdo it. I also only have one heating mat. This doesn’t include the box of direct sown seeds, the seeds that haven’t arrived yet (4 more tomatoes, another pepper, 2 more veggies), or the transplants I plan to buy. That last purchase came from a panic that I wouldn’t be able to get certain varieties as transplants.
April 9th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Wow, congrats Gayla! You are awesome, and so am I and all my friends! This is really weird, but all my friends (that garden) my neighbor and her friends and everyone I read about online, is super organized and ahead of the game this year. And that is SUPER weird for me, as I’m always behind and unorganized (in everything).
I declare this is the year of kick-ass organized gardening! Wooo!
April 11th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Man, everyone seems to be getting these “fish” peppers. Let us know if they are tasty! (it’s much too late for me to get any peppers started in my climate)