Shallots and garlic and water.

The shallots have been sprouting for a few days now. One of the cloves was popping out of the soil in it's little paper cup. When I tried to push it down, it wouldn't go. It doesn't have and sprout yet, but the roots are working hard. I hope I'm not stunting them in the paper cups. Maybe I should go plant them outside?

The garlic is just showing sprouts today. I think I'm going to have the same stunting/crowding problems with the garlic that I'm having with the shallots. I'm going to study up today.

The greenhouse is assembled to it's full size with four shelves and five bulbs lighting and heating the space. I noticed seedlings are starting to droop, especially the squashy-type veg. I'm not sure if they're just too top heavy from stretching tall with only one set of leaves. Some of the short squashy-types that have just emerged are short but are already putting out true leaves. Others have withered and look dead.

The lettuces that were doing so well flopped over and are mostly dead and withered. It's happened every single time I've tried to grow lettuce in a container, but in the past, if I take the container outside and leave it in the garden with all of the other growing things, it's rises from the dead and throws out beautiful, healthy plants. Maybe it's the heat in the greenhouse. Or the light? I haven' succeeded yet, so I don't know what works. More reading. I contacted the Master Gardeners at the university, but I didn't get an answer for growing seedlings other than advice that lettuce is sowed right in the ground, not transplanted. But I don't plan to transplant these. I just want some fresh containers of lettuce and greens. I'll have to keep looking.

I don't feel confident about my seedling management at all. I've had massive failure in previous years. This year I've used seeds from previous years - not heirlooms, seeds left over in old packets. The greenhouse thing is new. I turn the lights on. I turn the lights off. I open the door for circulation. I close it for humidity. I'm watering from the bottom. I've broken some stems when I've moved things around - some plants don't mind, some drop dead. If I get 40 plants from the 150+ plugs I've seeded, I think I'll feel successful. I'm well on my way with only 5 plugs or so without healthy looking seedlings, but I'm not confident.

I refreshed the water in the trays the plugs sit in. I'm not scientific about watering at all. I try to keep water in the trays. I've messed up a couple of times. I try to be mindful of the seedlings that are working hard to throw up stems and leaves. Air circulation and temperature affect the moisture too. Dozens of plugs sit in the same trays together even though they are different varieties. That seems like it's wrong, but I don't have the space to sort everything into it's own special places.

I've spent about $50 on seeds and soil. Pflaums sell pots, 3 for $5 with 3 seedlings in each plot. I can always fall back on them for the things that don't succeed.. I'm going to keep trying.

brussels sprouts are coming

It's cold in my apartment. I'm wearing two shirts, I'm wrapped in a blanket, my fingers and tip of my nose are cold and I think a hat might help. I finally turned on the baseboard heat in the living room. It's been off for weeks. It will be much more comfortable in an hour or so.

We had a few days of wind followed by a snow storm, a quick drop in temperature, and more wind. My apartment is on the west side of the building - perfect for catching the wind. When it's really windy, there's a draft coming in around my air conditioner and there is enough draft on the windows to make a sun catcher swing. All I have to do is put on layers, but it's too cold now. The ambient heat in the building (mostly concrete and concrete block) isn't keeping my apartment warm enough.

The heat is on. The plants next to the windows have been pulled away 1. so they don't get too cold and 2. the baseboard heat is under the windows. When it warms up, it dries out the plants really fast. Emma the Cat is bothered by the plants taking up more of her window space to stretch out, especially when that is now a warm place for her to lay. She's decided to sleep with her paws all tucked in and her head hanging over the table with the plants to catch the warmth as it rises. I wrapped Leena in a blanket for the first time. She likes it. She acts like it's a full body cuddle and she purred and relaxed until she decided to get some food.

I turned on the lights for the greenhouse. The plastic closest to the window has a lot of condensation. It's feeling the cold. Now that the lights are on, the temperature should balance out. The lettuce continues to grow. It's starting to show it's first leaves and a funny thing? The brussels sprouts have sprouted! They are on to their first set of leaves too with stems about an inch long.

I really like brussels sprouts. Last year I tried to grow them and they were short - no tall spikes and only a dozen tiny heads or so on the 15 plants I started. I let them freeze over the winter outside. The year before, I tried to grow cabbage. It didn't go well. Maybe I'm no good with brasicas, but I still like to eat them. I'm using last year's seeds for a lot of things I started last week. I've got enough time to have some failures, and when in doubt, I can always get plants from Pflaum's.

But the Brussels Sprouts Are Coming! Not in all of the pods I planted, but 2 for sure. yay.

And 72 more...

I've just washed my hands from planting my second 72-cell starter.

This set is acorn, butternut, and luffa squash, Asian cucumber, rosemary, sweet basil, leeks, green onions, sage, spearmint, green beans, and yellow pear tomatoes, and peas-in-a-pot.

The greenhouse is working great. Now that I've got the lights inside the plastic covering and everything is all zipped up, the humidity is up and it's warmer in there than the room. I have one incandescent bulb with clear glass (it's really bright) and two compact florescent. There's nothing special about that combination, it's just what I had around the house. They're all part of a single pole lamp, but instead of having to turn on each light individually, I have all of them "on" and I've used an extension cord with a tap foot switch to turn it off and on without opening the cover.

The lettuce has been following the light all day. I love to watch it.

sucked in

I decided to buy more seeds today. Holyheck. I went to Wagner's (I joined their membership club this year) and went through the seed packets just tossing them in my basket. I spent $25 on seeds, which kind of shocked me. But, I got seed catalogs this year and the cost in the catalogs is more than the retail price for the same and I don't have to pay shipping.
$25 in seeds is going to get me a whole lotta food, so I don't have much to complain. I guess $25 seems like a lot to spend all at once.

I need to start these new seeds and I've already used up my 72-cell starter. So I bought another one. At Target. It was $7.99. Last year, I bought the 72 cell self-watering doohicky. It was $20. So I'm justifying my $7.99 too.

I rearranged the lighting that I've got going for the greenhouse so that I can zip the plastic cover closed completely.

I noticed the lettuce mix, wheat grass, and oat grass are sprouting already. 2 days. So much fun! I like growing things.

I checked with a few more lobby stalkers - cauliflower, lemon basil, and spinach have been requested. A head of cauliflower was $1.89 at the store tonight. I think I'll skip that. Too much space for too little out-put. The others are a go (I already have the seeds).

I'm back

I got pretty quiet last year. I hosted my class reunion in August, got pretty sick, and the garden fuddled along with me.

I waited until the last day to take down my fences and posts. It took about 45 minutes to get everything flat so when the snow would come, the garden wouldn't be discernible (as per city code).

The Garden President, Sophia, banged on my door earlier that day to yell at me and tell me I was horrible (when I told her she woke me from my sick bed) she yelled that I was lazy and should sleep at night like a normal person.

I'm not sure if she has hard feelings for me. Ultimately, she can decide that I don't get a plot this year because almost broke the rules. I'm still pretty ticked. I'd like an apology. But she's a bossy, grouchy old lady so there's not much chance of that.

I flip-flopped over whether to have a garden or not. As soon as I agreed with myself that it was going to do it, "gardening" has had my attention online, in the stores, and looking through my homesteading books.

This will be my third plot in our community garden (as long as Sophia doesn't ban me). I never had a garden of my own before this and I've made a lot of mistakes (which really irks the senior citizens who think I waste). Since I've made some really annoying mistakes, I think I started off well.

I bought a 5'5" indoor greenhouse ($19.99 on sale) with a clear plastic cover and zipper access. I saved lots of my small plastic pots from last year. Last night, I started some seeds in my 72-cell Jiffy plant-starter tray from last year. I did some bigger pots for lettuce mix. EACH pod got it's OWN label written on a mini popsicle stick ($5 for 1000) in permanent ink that includes the date the seeds were started. I haven't been so organized in the past and it took a lot of extra time.

Here's the seed list for 15 March 2013. Most are last year's leftover seeds:
Amaranth: Love Lies Bleeding
Brussels Sprouts: Long Island Improved
Cat Nip
Chives: Common
Cliantro
Coleus: Rainbow Mix
Cosmos: Gazebo Mix
Oat Grass
Pepper: Cubanelle
Pepper: Poblano/Ancho
Sweet Pepper: Carnival Hybrid Mix
Sweet Pepper: Red Roaster Hybrid
Tomato: Super Sweet 100 cherry tomato
Tomato: Warren's Yellow cherry tomato
Wheat Grass

Gosh, when I look at the list all spelled out like that, it seems like a lot. There are still a lot of crops I want to grow. I'm going to hold off a week (if I can restrain myself) until these seeds get a good run at sprouting. I dreamed about them being a little lawn of green last night. They aren't sprouted of course, but my brain is already there.