Starting Again, from Seed

Sorry, bad pun. We're giving the seed starting another try. The Little
Guy was not interested in helping, having indulged his need to dig in the dirt and play with peat disks on the first attempt. I was able to salvage the seed starting mix from the peat disks from the first round and just crumbled them up into peat pots for this batch. I definitely like working with peat pots better than the peat disks. The disks were awkward to place seeds in, especially the really tiny seeds, and nearly everything that sprouted ended up with a tap root poking out the side of the disk mesh. At least I learned something new in the first attempt!

This time, I tried all the same herbs plus calendula, violas, zinnias (which I'm hoping will deter the deer from my garden), cherry tomatoes and green peppers. I think I'm going to wait on the lettuce and start it directly in the garden boxes we used last year. Oh, and I have poppies to plant directly in the garden when the time is right.

We cleaned out the garden area last fall and pulled out boatloads of peppermint to make room for a true herb garden. Right now it's empty and sad looking. I can't wait to see it full of herbs and veggies this summer!

First Attempt At Seed Starting...

...was officially a failure. While the Miracle Grow made for some nice, healthy leaves, every one of the little buggers is growing horizontally due to too little direct light. Yanked 'em all out, recycled the seed starting mix and will have to try again. I still don't have grow lights but don't need to get the seeds started just yet, so I have time to figure something out.

First Signs of Spring

I attended a lecture on seed starting a few weeks ago and, in spite of the overwhelming amount of information about which seeds need to be soaked, which ones like to be covered, which ones don't like to be covered, what soil temperature is best, the dangers of overwatering and underwatering, and the dire predictions of failure without the right lights, I decided to give it a try. Last weekend the Little Guy and I planted lettuce, sage, parsley, cilantro, forget-me-nots and morning glories in peat discs, which are now taking up one entire end of my craft table. As of today, everything has sprouted except the morning glories. I've been using a desk lamp with a CFL bulb for a grow light, and I think I made the fatal light-too-far-from-the-seedlings mistake. All the sprouts are reeeeaaalllllly tall and floppy. Sigh. Oh well. I gave them a dose of Miracle Gro hoping that will toughen them up, and if not, we'll give it another try. Seeds are cheap and I think we started everything too early anyway, considering our last frost date here is late May.