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| The only place I have to garden is in the laundry room. My dear husband set up a grow light stand for me. |
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| Here are my little seeds just after I got them settled into the soilless medium. |
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| Here are the seeds I planted. Eggplants from Baker Creek Seeds, and from my international friend Irina, tomatoes from Irina and from Daphne of Daphne's Dandelions. |
The little seeds are looking really good. I have had really good germination. I had to replant some of my tomatoes to bigger pots already.
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| This is what the garden looks like right now. |
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| This is a closeup of two of the newly transplanted tomatoes. |
My eggplants are doing well too. Eggplants take longer to germinate than tomatoes, but I have had 100% germination on the two types I bought from Baker Creek Seeds. (I bought Aswad eggplants, and Black Stem eggplants from them.) I have 2 white eggplants up of the seeds I got from Irina, and I have 2 eggplants up of the Rosa Bianca eggplants I bought on a whim last fall.
I mentioned at the top of the post that I may have planted the seeds too early. Here is what I am planning. I am planning to plant half of them about 2 weeks before the last frost date. It has not been very cold around here this winter and I think it may be an early spring. But I plan to save the other half of my seedlings in case I am wrong. That way, I would still have plants to plant if the first ones get frost-killed.
In other garden news, the broccoli I planted last fall is not looking as good as it was. I don't know what is wrong with them, but I think the recent rains have waterlogged the plants. I pulled all the mulch away from them, hoping they will dry out. It does seem to have perked up a bit after I moved the mulch from around it. And guess what, I have the start of broccoli florets on it. There, right there in the very middle. See?
Linking up after a long break to Daphne's Dandelions' Harvest Mondays.
Looks great. Your tomatoes are a wee bit bigger than mine already so you've gotten yourself a head start for sure! :-) It has definately been warm this year. Only 1 freeze for us so far.
ReplyDeleteBarbie, that is true. It has been unusually warm.
DeleteYou may have to pot those tomatoes up a lot of times before it is time for them to go out. When is you last frost date usually?
ReplyDeleteThe old timers generally start outdoor planting around Easter (April 4 this year), but I am planning to set out about half of them in the middle of March. It's been so warm that I am going to risk it with half of them and save the other half in case I guessed wrong.
DeleteLast year we started a little too early so this year we are waiting a bit longer this year, maybe mid-March. Oh course, I am in Zone 4.
ReplyDeleteWay to put those cans to second use before recycling. That is an awesome idea. Did you add any drainage holes or just use them as is?
My son and I pounded in some drainage holes with nails and a hammer.
DeleteLast year I was way too late, so I may be way too early this year. Se la vie.
Looks like you have a great start for spring! It has definitely been a warm winter here (7B) too. Hopefully you can get them planted early without any late frosts.
ReplyDeleteJulie, thanks. I do hope I can get them planted out without any late frosts. It's the risk I am taking, I guess, by planting early. Maybe I'll get early tomatoes. :)
DeleteI need to get going if I am going to start my peppers from seeds this year. Where did you get your grow light from? Are they expensive? My problem is lack of space too.
ReplyDeleteI bought them at Walmart in the lighting section. They were only about $11 or $ 12 each and that included the light bulbs and the frame with a cord to connect it to a regular outlet. I felt the prices were good. The other options we found were all separate purchases of the light and the bulbs and some even had to be wired to the wall.
DeleteI just planted a few tomato seeds a couple of days ago (posting about it tomorrow) and can hardly wait for them to "pop"! Oh! I also have our grow lights set up in the laundry room, so no worries ;-)
ReplyDeleteBee Girl, I can't wait to see your pix of your set up. God bless your garden.
DeleteYour seedlings look great; I have some tomatoes started too. I had some really old seeds so planted them to see if they would sprout as I didn't have fresher seed of those kinds. Quite a few plants came up. I would normally also start peppers and eggplants about now, to have nice big plants by May, but I will be gone a week the end of Feb and don't want to have too many to worry about while I'm not home. Just keep potting them up as they need it and they should do great. Your plan of only planting half at a time is a good one.
ReplyDeleteYour seedlings look great. It will be another 6 weeks before I can start tomatoes for my Zone 5 garden but I do have some lettuce starts under the lights now!
ReplyDeleteThank you Mary Hysong and Stoney Acres. I am in zone 8B so spring is not too far away for this area.
ReplyDeleteMary, thank you for your advise. I will just keep moving them to bigger containers as needed.
All your seedlings look wonderful! I have a Baker Creek catalog, yet sadly, I have not even begun yet to think about our spring garden. All we have planted for our winter garden is spinach and turnips, and I have neglected fertilizing them. A friend recently gave me some kale, which I still need to get into the ground.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michelle. The only thing I planted for winter was the broccoli in the picture. I had big goals, but nothing got done.
DeleteYou still have time to get your spring garden started from seed. You are a little farther north than me.
Cristy, your seed starting station looks good... I'm putting mine together today. Where did you get your little soilless pods? I've looked online with no luck.
ReplyDeleteOn another subject: I so admire you for homeschooling your children. My three G.Sons were/are homeschooled and I know just how much work that takes. The oldest(25) wanted to learn Japanese when he was in the 3rd "grade" and his Mom (who didn't speak Japanese) researched until she found a way. Later, while in university he received a scholarship for 6 months in Japan at university. Last year he was hired by a Japanese owned company to translate contracts. ....I could go on and on, afterall they ARE my grandsons!! Hang in thar!
dirtdabbler, I got my soilless pods at Walmart. Territorial Seed Company http://www.territorialseed.com/category/269 had some too. They sold their peat pellets separately from their plastic containers for them to sit in. I bought them together at Walmart.
DeleteThank you so much for the encouragement to continue homeschooling. I am excited to see what the future holds. And I am very interested in what your grandsons have done. :)
This year sure has been odd. Who know what will happen! :) Good luck. :)
ReplyDeleteLynn
Thank you, Lynn. You are so right... the year has been odd. Our local weather man said yesterday that last year was the 3rd coldest winter on record for south Alabama, and this year winter has not shown up.
DeleteThank you for joining my blog.