Progress on seedlings

I spent an hour or so this morning planting new and redundant seedings. I seeded in 44 seed starts with various vegetables that needed to be started plus a round of seconds on some for surety. As seen in the pictures, my seedlings are progressing well. I will be transplant them into larger pots shortly and am hoping that I can put them in my greenhouse from there. Given the weather has been cooler and mainly cloudy, I'm not sure that my seedlings will fare well in the greenhouse at this time. So, I decided to start a few seconds to be ready just in case.


I now have roughly 132 seedlings and seeded cells in my basement. That's much more than I normally start but the prices of the early plants in the stores seem higher than last year. I have more than ample seeds to grow a wide ranging and varied selection of veggies. Having the lights and space to start the seeds and a greenhouse to harden them off in is a small luxury. I decided last fall that I would definitely be much more aggressive given the prices and quality of the vegetables in the stores.

Some of the seedlings you see are from 6-10 year old seeds. I am getting a very good germination rate on most of them which I attribute to how I store and handle my seeds. I recently watched a Youtube video from a well known gardener regarding seed storage. Everything they pointed out was an affirmation of what I was doing. Except, I took it another step further which is what I believe keeps my seeds fresher and longer lasting. I've always believed that seeds could last decades if properly handled.
That subject will be the theme of my next post. I will detail what I do and what my general results have been. So, until the next post, I hope you are growing well. Happy gardening everyone!!

 

What a wonderful life!

This weekend was crazy busy to say the least.  Two days is hardly enough time to get all the work in. During periods like this, I often wonder if I am trying to do too much.  There is that little voice inside my head that doubts the sanity of doing so much to get the garden I really want.  If you are like me, you too will have those moments.  And, just like me, you will come realize in the long run, that it is indeed worth the effort.
We had two beautiful days that were absolutely ideal for gardening.  Both days highs reached near or 80 degrees.  I also had to fit in a family function on Saturday.  So, that compressed my gardening activities even further.  Both days I was up by 6 and in the garden.  Saturday, I put a fence around both beds in order to dissuade my gardening buddy (my puppy Barkley) from digging in my beds or worse.  I also worked on other home items so, for the most part, the fence was major item completed.
Sunday however, was a different story.  I was up by 6 (habit) and out in the garden.  I planted 3 cabbage and 3 cauliflower plants under my shade structure.  I also checked my hydroponic system for the progress of my various lettuce plants

As seen in the picture, there are many pots with plants in them.  The big ones in  bowl 11 are spinach.  It will take another couple of weeks before these are ready to eat.

I also put up a mason bee hive in hopes of getting these voracious workers to settle in my backyard.

They're supposed to be wonderful pollinators and aren't the least bit hostile.  Time will tell on whether this experiment works or not.
Additionally, I erected my mini greenhouse in order to harden my plants for transplanting in the next week or so.  As seen by the pictures, it is quite roomy and it ages well as this one is 6 years old.

Here is another view of it with my plants in them.

So, there is a little snippet of what I did on Sunday.  There is much more to do as the time to plant the warm weather crops is upon us in the Mid-Atlantic.  I can't wait to get digging into the dirt.  Till then, keep on gardening!