spring is coming!!!!!!!!!!!
now i told you i was lazy. i didn't measure this crap. i just eyeballed three piles in my wheel barrel all about the same size and then mixed it together. tada!
i am terribly excited that spring is just around the corner. soon everything will be blooming, we'll get to spend the weekends with the windows open while napping on the couch, and i'll be in the garden banging out some veggies. well, at least i hope so. if my pepper seeds are any indication as to how the up coming growing season will be, i'm screwed. i started those bad boys over two weeks ago and nothing. sunday will be day 15 and if i still don't have any pepper action, i'm afraid i will have to start all over. if so, this time i will try soaking the seeds in water overnight just prior to sowing. but i don't think i am under watering them, or that the soil mixture is wrong, cause the little tomato seedlings are growing like gang busters. thank goodness. so as promised to my cousin, here is a little run down on how i start my seeds inside. and remember i am a lazy cheap gardener, so no fancy equipment is necessary. i don't have a heating pad for my seeds, i don't have any grow lights, and i don't have any fancy seed trays. just a few reused plastic containers, some simple potting mix, a few seeds, a window, and a spray bottle. oh the spray bottle. my little seed germination friend. very important for me is the spray bottle. this way i can keep the top of the soil moist with out drowning my seeds and causing them to float to the top, and i can continue to water them once they have sprouted without loading the leaves with water causing them to topple over which hurts my heart. and, it's made in the usa.... score!!!
but let me tell you this before you read any further..... i really don't know what in the hell i am doing. i kinda go in thinking, if this works... great. if not....oops. so please use caution folks. it's the blind leading the blind here. any who.
first i made a mixture of sifted compost and vermiculite to use on top of the seeds. sifting the compost removes the bigger and harder pieces and makes for a light textured soil that the little seeds can easily break through, and the vermiculite also lightens it up and helps retain moisture.
but let me tell you this before you read any further..... i really don't know what in the hell i am doing. i kinda go in thinking, if this works... great. if not....oops. so please use caution folks. it's the blind leading the blind here. any who.
first i made a mixture of sifted compost and vermiculite to use on top of the seeds. sifting the compost removes the bigger and harder pieces and makes for a light textured soil that the little seeds can easily break through, and the vermiculite also lightens it up and helps retain moisture.
the sifted compost is on the right. see how pretty and silky it is. and again, no fancy equipment needed. i used and old kitchen sieve i snagged at my sister's yard sale for a quarter. (not that i actually gave her the quarter.) i mixed that with about the same amount of vermiculite and set it aside.
then i made a potting mixture of equal parts compost (i use one with chicken poop in it), peat moss (but now i am reading things about destruction of swamps and stuff to get the peat moss, so once this bag is through, i'm switching to something else) and vermiculite (i haven't really research the whole vermiculite situation yet... i'm to afraid), and we're off.
then i gathered up my plastic containers, punched a few holes in the bottoms, lined them with a paper towel, filled them with the potting mixture, and headed inside cause it was cold out there in the garage. remember this was over two weeks ago and it was still butt arse cold out there. and to think we were seriously thinking about moving to minneapolis at one point. oh hell to the no. then i simply placed my little seeds on the soil, covered them with some of my sifted compost/vermiculite mixture, gave them a good spritz of water, and was done. i did four different kinds of tomatoes and three different peppers.
gardening inside where it is nice and warm. the terra cotta pots i am using for an indoor herb garden, which, except for one pot of parsley, i have yet to start. and that's worm poop there in the plastic bag, but i haven't used any of that yet. oh yeah the parsley......
here she is all spindly and crowded. on the list to do for this weekend is to transplant the different seedlings to some big yogurt containers and let them hang out there for a week or so. then i am gonna start setting them outside during the day to harden them off for about a week. then into the ground in one of the front garden beds. they really should be going into the ground 5 weeks before the last frost date, but on this schedule they will make it out there 3 weeks before. here in greenville, sc i am using April 15th as my last frost date just to be on the safe side.
and now remember, most important when starting the seeds indoors. KEEP THE SOIL MOIST. that's where the spray bottle comes in handy. every morning, and sometimes every night, i give each of the containers a nice little spritz of water. and i mean every morning. but it's not to bad, it generally only takes 5-10 minutes. water is life. they gotta have it. last year i tried using the tops of the plastic containers to create a mini green house to keep the soil moist with the help of condensation. those seeds did not sprout, but i did succeed in growing some pretty white fungus. apparently the seeds also need oxygen to germinate as well. so this year i left the tops off so the air could circulate. well hopefully soon i can get a few pictures up of the little tomato seedling and show you where they are hanging out. and really hopefully soon i can post up some picture of the pepper seedlings if they ever decide to show their faces. till then get a planting!!!!!!!!
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