Pansies

Well.....this latest round of seeds are not germinating as fast as the lettuce. We planted Pansies and Dusty Millers on Sat. Feb. 20th. I've been anxiously awaiting their germination, but most days I wake up to find no change. Finally last night I did find one plant that has germinated. I guess its back to waiting and waiting and waiting.

True Leaves

We started our first batch of seeds on Sat. Feb. 13th. It didn't take long for the seeds to germinate. Within about 3 or 4 days, the lettuce, daisies and zinnias had germinated. We thinned most of the lettuce down to two or three plants per individual container and then just waited for the true leaves to appear. We are finally starting to see true leaves appear on the daisies and lettuce. Maybe in another week or so we will start transplanting the plants with true leaves into a big container to continue growing. I was wondering what the funny looking leaves were on some of the lettuce. Also, just glancing at some plants I was wondering if there were some grass seeds mixed in. I finally remembered we planted Mesclun which is a mix of different seeds. I'm always amazed at what is contained in such a little seeds.

Making Paper Pots

We couldn't resist buying one of these make your own pots for gardening out of newpaper. We actually purchased one last year and it was so popular we decided to buy a second one this year - Not a bad investment. They are around $16 to $20. Add some newspaper which is basically free, invest a few buck in a bag of potting soil and you're good to go. We cut strips of newspaper about 3" by 8" or so and wrapped the newspaper around the pot maker. It's an enviromentally responsible thing and it really saves money instead of buying all the little peat containers which could be 15 to 20 cents a piece or the plastic container which are even more expensive. We're always look for ways to recycle and save money.

more lights

Roni added more lights to the grow racks. Last year we only had one light for each shelf. It seemed like most plants were stretching to reach the light and we ended up with mostly spindly plants. This year we thought we'd add a second light to each shelf. We'll continue to rotate the plants around, but this will add to the amount of light each plant will get. The lights are on chains where they can be raised and lowered as needed. Hopefully this year we'll have a great year of seed starting and begin gardening season with a number of healthy seedlings to transplant.

More Seed Stuff

The lettuce is growing like crazy! Still now "true leaves", but definitely time to thin out the plants to just one or two seeds per container. I guess someone put a bunch of seeds in each container. Its hard when your working with small seeds like lettuce, but I always feel guilty letting a few of the plants go. We'll keep these seeds in the same containers until their true leaves appear. At that time we'll start transplanting them to bigger pots to continue to grow.

Small Seeds

Its difficult working with small seeds. Check out the picture above with a Dusty Miller seed (towards the bottom circled in blue). We really should have been tools when it comes to working with these small seeds. Tweezers would be good. To start with I usually pour out all the seeds in the packet onto a paper saucer. Tweezers would be great to pick up individual seeds and also useful when it comes to thinning seeds.

Winter Time

We're had quite a bit of snow so far in Febuary. Its hard to think about gardening when you have about 15 inches of snow on the ground. Here's what some of the gardens look like right now - snow, snow and more snow. It will be interesting to see when the soil will be ready to work this spring. We've got lettuce and pansy starting indoors.

Epworth Veggie Garden

Maple Grove UMC - Extending the Table

Ascension Lutheran Helping Hands Garden

Germination!

We started seeds Saturday morning and when I check on the seeds Monday night, I noticed some of the seeds have already germinated! We've got lettuce popping up!



Starting to get into a routine again. Checking the plants in the morning, turning on the grow lights and watering them as needed. Then, in the evening they get watered again as needed and then its lights out.


The next step will be to thin out the lettuce so we just have one or two seedlings. Looks like the Zinnas are starting to germinate as well.

Starting Seeds

We finally got around to sarting some seeds. We used peat pellets for some of the seeds and plug trays with potting soil for the other seeds. We started the following seeds:

Lettuce - Black Seeded Simpson, Simpson Elite and Parris Island Romaine and Mesclun
Flowers - Painted Daisy and Zinnas

What to Grow?

So many cool things to grow. I was particularly amused by Strawberry Popcorn. How cool would this be to grow and then use to decorate in the fall. You can even eat this variety of corn.


Bunny Tails looks interesting as well. This year, we'd like to incorporate even more color and textures into the garden.


Ribbon Corn looks nice as well. This would make a wonderful backdrop. You could have the large corn in the back along with shorter items in front.

Seeds, Seeds and More Seeds

Once again we got hooked up with seeds from Livingston Seed Company. This winter we will be sorting out seeds and sharing as much as possible with other gardening groups. I'm always amazed at the different varieties of seeds. This year we got not only vegetable and herb seeds, but also flowers. So many things we'd like to grow - Sunflowers, different color beans and so many different varieties of lettuces.