Garden Journal: Starting Early - 01:30, Saturday, January 13, 2007 |
| I am an early start gardener. I have repurposed the beautiful oak and walnut changing table my father made for my grandson and have turned it into a seed growing table. I have plastic bins to protect it and I'm using a lamp with a strong bulb to give light to the seedlings. A grow light is in progress - I've bought the hardware and the bulbs. We just need to make a support to put the light fixture on. Here is my journey from seed packets to produce so far: February 12: All the echinacea plants are up. I've got more peat pots to transplant the rest of my lemon basil. My lavender still has not sprouted. Patience, Patty! The seed envelope said 14-28 days. This is just day 15. I put a small space heater on the dryer with the lavender pots to use during the day to help the lavender think its spring. ;-> February 7: All of the tomato pots have seedlings popping up. 2 echinacea seedlings are peeping out. I transplanted all but the last of the lemon basil...I ran out of peat pots and with the snow coming down, I didn't think it was a priority.  Hurray!!! My dh got the grow light installed over the seed starting table. It's adjustable so I can keep it 6 inches above the plants to give them the maximum exposure they need to grow well indoors.  February 5: The Sweet 100 Hybrid cherry tomatoes are up!! I bought a downloadable book from The Old Schoolhouse Store: Momma's Guide to Growing Your Groceries by Kimberly Eddy. She has a great tip for putting your heat loving plants in the garden earlier. She says to make cloche's from gallon milk jugs (well washed!) with the bottom cut off and the lid left off. I love to reuse items rather than throw them out. I'm already saving the occasional 2-liter plastic pop bottles to use for watering my heavy water using plants like watermelons and squashes. I'm ordering nifty little "Aqua Spikes" ($7.95 for 4) from the Gardening with Kids catalog from the National Gardening Association. You just cut the bottom of the pop bottles off, screw the Aqua Spike onto the top, place in the ground next to the thirsty plant, and fill it with water. It also helps control diseases spread by top watering. February 2: I replenished the seed starting tray with peat disks last night and put water in them to prep for planting. Today I planted all 12 disks with Echinacea (Purple Coneflower), 2 seeds per disk. February 1: I transplanted some of the basil to individual peat pots - only the ones that had a single plant come up in the starter disk. I divided a starter disk of chives into three peat pots. I am not going to transplant any more until I see how these survive. I hate to chop off little seedlings when I thin my pots. I'm hoping to get a plant from every seed that sprouts. January 30: I grabbed some peat pots (10 cells per pot) and some organic seed starting mix. I planted tomatoes seeds from my Burpee order today. Super Sweet 100 Hybrid (cherry tomatoes) - 10 cells Golden Mama (yellow paste tomatoes) - 10 cells Big Mama Hybrid (red paste tomatoes) - 10 cells Organic Beefsteak (large slicing tomatoes) - 10 cells Tomatillo (Physalis ixocarpa) for salsa - 5 cells Salsa Delight Hybrid Pepper (mild hot peppers) - 5 cells My grandson brought in a pine cone a few days ago. We gathered seeds from the family room carpet and I planted 6 small pots with the seeds. We'll see how they grow. I've never planted pine trees from seeds. January 29: I've washed and sterilized planting pots I've been saving to get ready to transplant the seedlings. I also bought some more peat pellets, but these aren't Jiffy brand and don't fit in the seed starting tray. I cleaned a tray and put all 20 pellets and planted some True Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia). I want to line my front walk with lavender. I've had great success with three plants in a planter next to the house. They're three years old and huge. January 23: The chives are so tall I had to remove the tray lid. I boosted the tray up to within 6 inches of the light to avoid damping off disease. The little basil plants are doing well. I've moved the tray to the changing table.  January 18: The seeds are up! The chives are the quicker growers, already an inch high. The basil is just starting to show green. I've put the lamp over it. January 13: I bought a little Jiffy seed starting tray last night. I also got some seeds: Lemon & Cinnamon Basil and Garlic Chives (Allium Tuberosum). Today I planted 4 peat pellets each. I put the tray on the dryer to give it some extra warmth. Basil likes it hot! |
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 Trying to be like the original example of a homesteading woman: "She's up before dawn, preparing breakfast for her family, and organizing her day. She looks over a field and buys it, then, with money she's put aside, plants a garden." Proverbs 31:15-16 (The Message) CategoriesCooking Crafting Gardening Organizing Small Space Homesteading Studying the Word that you forget to make a life. Recent EntriesPlease Pray for the families of Joshua, Shawn, & ShelleyNever too young to start learning the Word! Baby Wipes are Wonderful!! Joyful Chicken Farmers UNITE!! Whole Grain Storage question
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Welcome to Morning Glory Farm
is that you can take it to bed with you. ~Daniel J. Boorstin~
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Looking Great! - 10:33, Friday, February 2, 2007
I'm so glad that you were able to take your leave of absence and that it is blessing you and your family! Your plants and bread look great! We've been having to let our bread rise a lot longer due to cooler weather too. I've been turning the oven light on and throwing the loaves in there which seems to help a lot. Seems like it gets a real yeasty flavor when I let it rise for a long time. Anyway...hope you all enjoy your goats. A church friend of ours just had a goat kid so we're going to taste some of their milk to make sure that we like it before we jump in. I am still apprehensive about getting goats on such a small lot--might wait a little on that--guess we'll see what the Lord has in store for us ;) Well, I'm taking your advice on getting to bed earlier so I guess I need to call it a night. May the Lord richly bless you and your family!Elizabeth
Posted by mejerrymouse