Seed Starting!

I love this time of year. Of course, I bought too many seeds, but what else is new. I seem to forget that I actually don't have a 40-acre farm back there! But I love to give seedlings away to friends, so it's all good.

For now, I started 4 annuals -- tomatoes, sweet peas, stocks and a couple of cosmos. The cosmos, of course, germinated practically overnight and are now already gangly and reaching toward the light. The stocks have all germinated and are doing nicely. I'm still holding the tomatoes and sweet peas in my kitchen on a luke-warm radiator. No sign of life from them yet, but it's only been a week.

I have a nice set-up in my basement for seedlings. I have a baker's rack with light fixtures attached to the top of each shelf. The light fixtures are on chains so that I can raise and lower them. I like to keep them about 4 inches above the seedlings. I have the lights on a timer, they go on at 6 a.m. and off at 9 p.m. I often wonder what the Chicago Police think when they drive by and see the glow of the grow lights shining out my basement windows.........lol

I'm very annoyed at my choice of stocks, which I have never grown before. I was enticed by the picture and the description in a seed catalog -- which failed to mention that they are cool-weather annuals, similar to pansies. Bummer. I found this out only after I had started the seeds. I wanted them for my summer front porch pots, near my chair, because they are supposed to be very fragrant. We'll see what happens, I hope they don't faint at the first 80 degree day! They will only get morning sun on the front porch, so that should help.

I am going to erect bamboo teepees for my sweet peas, and also for some pole beans. I have never grown pole beans, but I love the way they look climbing up their supports.

It's going to be a lousy weekend, we're expecting a few inches of snow. I hate early spring snow storms. I better enjoy the daffodils around the neighborhood while I can!

Spring is just about here.......

I have a pile of seed catalogs on my dining room table, at least a foot high. I love this time of year. My garden notebook is full of my scrawls -- all of my wishes and dreams for my 2009 garden. I will be starting some seeds in my basement under grow lights, but I am going to try to keep it down to just a few flats. It's so hard to decide what to grow! I want everything in every pretty picture that I see!!

I think I am going to buy two Earth Boxes this year to grow vegetables on my deck. I only want a couple of vegetable plants, maybe 2 tomatoes and 2 peppers. There are only 2 of us in the house, so I don't need bushels of vegetables. I don't have too much room to plant tomatoes and peppers in my flower beds, since we removed the vegetable plot that was right in the middle of the back lawn. I had a square plot, with a small wooden fence around it. My brother said it looked like Boot Hill. lol Dan complained about mowing the lawn around it, so it is back to grass this year. I hope I can find some used Earth Boxes on Craigslist or Ebay. I don't feel like spending almost $80 to have two new ones shipped to me.

Happy garden planning, everyone!