I have tomato sprouts!!

Let's start off with saying, I made dinner tonight. Polish Lasagna and buttered bread with flaked sea salt. You'll see those pictures below in the slide show.

So, I'm one of those hovering people when they start their seeds. I'm fascinated by watching them start off, and this year since I'm doing a "test" of different mixes of Peat Moss and Vermiculite, its even more important that I at least pay attention. So far, the 50/50 mix is doing the best, but, it is also full of nothing but pole beans. If you don't know, beans have to be one of the easiest things to start.

1. Hole - Dig
2. Put bean in hole
3. Cover with a little dirt
4. Dampen Soil
5. Watch grow

It is really is that easy. It does need a little bit of light, but they really aren't hard to grow. Love em to grow, not fond of them to eat. Odd isn't it?

I took pictures of my babies that I saw today. I about did the excited girl squeal when I saw them. I think the big thing that helped is that I got my heating mat today for my table. There were no sprouts today in the tomato/pepper tray, and at about 12:30 am this morning, as I was getting ready to put a little bit of Vermiculite in that particular tray, I saw em. So pretty and precious. They're ones that I haven't started from seed before so that is why I was super excited.

I also took pictures of my giant calico bean, and when they say giant, they mean giant. I'll have to start those next year right away in their own bigger pot and hope they don't get transplant shock, or just wait and direct sow them. If the soil is at least somewhat warm, they'll sprout. Maybe I'll make that a test for next year. I'll grow beans side by side in two squares and compare direct sown with transplants. I'll be doing a similar thing with carrots this year. You can read that -+-here-+-. I ordered my carrots and hopefully I can get the French seeds.

Check it out! I'm really wanting to set up a time lapse camera to truly watch everything. My mac daddy camera isn't set up to do that though and I don't think my wee little one is either. I'll have to do a little bit of research on that. I'll have to choose just one seed flat to start with and have that be my "go to" for that year. My research project if you will. It would be a nice goal, but I think everyone who is a hobby gardener if you will, knows that keeping notes gets old.

Well, I'm getting tired. I'm going to call it a night.

Green Grape Tomato

Black Pear Tomato

Plum Lemon Tomato - Not pictured (over excited)

Chocolate Cherry Tomato

再見！

Getting all this for next to nothing... Priceless

I know the picture is hard to see, but if you click on it and open it in a new window you'll see it a lot better. I took this a few days ago, I was going to wait and post it with a whole bunch of other pictures and just do a video. I'll probably still do that, but I've been itching to post this.

This is going to be the bulk of my seed starting supplies this year. I was quite proud of myself. It's a mish mosh of things because I'm planning on doing transplanting into bigger things, but also because I want to see which is going to work best for what I'm wanting to do. I've decided to not buy the bulk of the plants I want but to use the seeds I already own. I bought them for a reason, and gosh darn it I'm going to do it and if they fail THEN I'll buy the plants I need. Either way, it's still cheaper than buying all the produce in the grocery store.

So here's my plan. I'm going to make some seed starting things on my own. I have a few shot glasses so I think if I can use the concept of the seed blocks, I should be okay, and be able to get them started and then transplant them to the disposable plastic cups, and then from there transplant them to the different sized containers I have. My biggest thing is the tomatoes, hence the big buckets. I'm determined to get the ones I'm most concerned about the biggest chance.

I still have to add the draining holes and air pruning slots to them, then wash them to make sure they're clean, then dry, and get the rest of my seed starting supplies together. My goal for tomorrow is to finish up the laundry and make myself a spot in the garage tomorrow cleared a way for the project, and get it set up. I still have to buy the soil to do my seedlings, but I can get that on Friday, and I'll have to because I'm broke.

So then on Wednesday I'm planning on doing the dirty work of getting the containers prepped, getting my buffet table set up in the dinning room with my grow light, setting out my baking trays (they're so I can have a little bit of water for the "self watering" feature), washing all the containers, and getting the seeds together that I'm going to plant. That will be exciting to finally get them all off my coffee table. When all of this is done I'll be a happy camper.

Thursday is my day off, Friday I'll go out and buy the seed starting mix and start filling up my containers as well as making my little seedling starters, Saturday will be the day when everything begins and the day when I'll really start my progress! I have to say I'm super excited.

I will try my hardest to take pictures of everything while I do it for documentation. Let's face, a picture can sometimes better explain things. I probably won't do another post until at least Thursday, though I hope to do a post on Wednesday with my "shopping list" of things I'm going to be getting to expand my garden.

Til the next post . . . Arrivederci!

April Preping

A somewhat slow month by our standards, but nonetheless, exciting! The planters have been put together, filled with dirt and planted! Needless to say I am super stoaked about it all, though pesimistic as well. I'm not new to gardening, I have grown tomato plants in the ground quite a few times, and even neglecting them they were mass producers. However, I am newer to the SFG method (square foot garden). My Bio-Dad had a planter where he planted tomato plants and a few pepper plants and it was almost the same method, it was just a bigger planter and in the ground. I dare say he did it on purpose, it just happened. That memory however did spark the massive search into that type of method, which has led me to the Companion Planting guide I made and among other things.

It is however quite obvious that I will be having to replace some of the tomato transplants. I did not even think (or really know for that matter) about the hardening off process. I got so excited with planting that I just planted straight from indoors to out, not all liked this process. I'm still holding off hope for the peas, though they aren't looking well, the beans are in the same boat, as well as the pepper plant, carrots, and lettuce. I still haven't gotten my tiller back from a friend and so I've had to hold off on the luffa and watermelon. My pumpkin never did germinate and I didn't grow enough beans because they didn't come in in time. But, we shall see!

Ciao!

The First Post

So, this is my first official post. Yay! I have been planning this garden for a long time now and it's finally going to happen. I've ordered all the seeds and stuff that I'm going to need to start them for the most part. I shall post more on that later. I still need to order my actual self-watering gardens and other things, but for the most part, I have everything I need, except for the soil.

But, I am tired, and I'm still futzing with this place, so I shall post more as my orders come in.

Ciao!