Seedlings

Things I've learned about starting seeds indoors:
- The flats must be placed 3-4 inches under big shop lights with multiple bulbs, and kept on a timer for at least 16 hours a day.
- The shelves should be placed in a location that has plenty of maneuvering room around it, like a basement. With the shop lights, it does not need to be near a window.
- The bulbs should be plain old cool white, no special type of bulb required.
- Too much heat and too little light will result in leggy, weak seedlings that may not be able to recover.
- T12 bulbs are being replaced by T8's. Any lighting you buy should be T8.
- Light fixtures are expensive.
- Seedlings are tiny and can be planted quite close together.

My current seed starting set up has resulted in a lot of disappointment so far.  The lights are too hot and not bright enough, resulting in lots of leggy seedlings. I'm considering just starting everything outdoors at this point. I don't want to ruin any more seeds with my current set-up. It's either start outdoors or go out and buy a bunch of shop lights. Not sure what to do yet.

Yay large machinery!

Last Saturday, the 27th, I rototilled up the new garden with my Dad's help. We rented the tiller from Home Depot. Dad showed me how to use it, then I did most of the tilling. My arms are still sore! I also started laying out the beds, and so far it's matching up exactly to my plans. Unfortunately, due to bad weather, I haven't been able to continue working on preparing the beds.

Here's some pics:

Also, here is my "final" garden plan, although nothing is really set in stone yet. Each square represents one foot.

Lettuce

I started some lettuce seeds on Monday, and they began sprouting this morning, just two days later! I've also decided not to plant the lettuce in the main garden, because I think it'll be too sunny and warm for them. I dug up a bed for them today in the old garden, which is cool and shady. Wow, what a lot of work just for a little plot! Typical new england soil, with lots and lots of rocks to remove. I added a little compost, raked it smooth, watered it, and maybe tomorrow I'll start some lettuce seeds directly in the bed.

Following some advice I read on a forum, I recently trimmed my onion seedlings down to about 4 inches, and they look a lot happier. They were all flopped over before, but now they're standing upright again.

Here's another crocus picture for your enjoyment:

Has the weather ever been this nice in March?!

Wow! These crocuses seem to have popped up overnight! I swear they weren't there yesterday. The rain and warm weather are bringing spring on very quickly. All the trees have bright red blossoms, indicating that leaves are coming shortly. The daffodils, daylillies, tulips, and irises we have planted everywhere are growing by leaps and bounds. I love spring! Today was about 70 degrees and sunny. I had the day off work, so I took the opportunity to go hiking at Sleeping Giant State Park. It's just a molehill compared to the mountains I hiked last year, but it was nice to be outside again.

 Anyway, I'm not about to get into scientific arguments concerning global warming, but usually in March there's still snow on the ground. Our usual complaint each March is this: "Well, the book says we can plant peas on the 20th.... if only we could find the garden!" This year, however, it has been consistently warm and snow-free since the 1st!  The weather prediction for next week is also in the 50's and 60's, with some rain. If it stays like this, I'll be able to move my entire gardening schedule back a little, and just pray that we don't get any frosts.

For the past two days I've been moving the seedling flats outside during the day, to help them get a little extra sunlight. They are showing their appreciation by growing some of their first true leaves. Today I am going to give them their second feeding. I do this by taking a little seaweed and a horse apple or two from the compost pile, tie them up in cheesecloth, and soaking them in a bowl of water for an hour. Then I water this "tea" to the seedlings. I am also going to start my lettuce seeds indoors today or tomorrow.

New blog, first post.

I'm starting this blog to document the progress of my new garden over the course of this summer. I've already been keeping a pen and paper journal, but have been encouraged to post about it online.

For as long as my family has lived here, we've kept a garden on the side of the lawn, near some ornamental trees. Now it's been 23 years since that garden was started. The trees next to it have grown quite tall, and are now completely shading the old garden. In addition, the soil was not tended to as well as it should have been, and is exhausted. For the past several years it has been a constant battle with weeds just to coax a few vegetables out of it.

This is the first summer I'll be spending at home in the last 5 or so years. I've always been somewhat perturbed that we have a great big lawn, but the best, sunniest part of it contains nothing but grass. So this year I've convinced my parents to allow me to rototill a brand new garden in the middle of the lawn and grass over the old garden. Throughout the winter, I've been maintaining a large compost pile, I've drawn up plans for the new garden layout, I've decided what to grow, I've ordered and received seeds and plants, I've set up a schedule for starting seeds and transplanting, and at this point, I already have two flats of seedlings growing indoors.

Now for some pictures!


This was my backyard just a few weeks ago. No hope of spring in sight. Yet as soon as March 1st struck, the snow melted and it was suddenly warm.


Took this picture today. These flowers seemed to appear out of nowhere a week ago.


Here is my set up for starting seeds.


My yummy compost pile. It contains the following ingredients: dead leaves collected last fall, seaweed from the beach of Connecticut and Maine, horse manure from a local riding stable, and lots of kitchen scraps.


Parsley seedlings. They are looking pretty leggy, but I'm not sure what I can do about that, since they're already under very bright lights. They've just begun to form their first true leaves.


My aloe plant. It seems to have doubled in size since I got it in January.