A Victim Of My Own Success

How many seeds should you sow for your garden?

It turns out, poking about EIGHTEEN Sungold tomato seeds into starting pots

when you want about THREE plants is probably overkill:

So... yeah.  After putting sixteen tomato plants into my garden,

I ended up with SIXTY-TWO extra little tomato plants.

Someone better take some of these off my hands,

or I'm going to have to sneak some onto the neighbors' doorsteps at night.



ETA:  I took a bunch of extras into work, and they were gone, baby, gone within hours.
I took the rest in the next day and again, I saw staff member after staff member
leaving the break room clutching a new tomato plant!

So maybe... I'll plant as many next year, too.

People love getting a new baby tomato plant!

Newspaper Pots, Take Two

As I detailed in this post, my newspaper pots got all funky.

So last week, I transplanted the little seedlings into new newspaper pots

and also little paper cups.

How do they look this week?

Pretty good!

The majority of them survived the transplanting, and new seedlings

are popping up where I sowed new seeds.

Besides being more careful with my watering,

I also did something else to ensure the bottom of my newspaper pots

wouldn't get too wet:

I took one of my cookie cooling racks and put it in the bottom of the

cardboard tray.  It really seems to help!

What's Going On In My Greenhouse?

It's Friday, and I have the day off!

What's on my To Do list?

First, I need to take everything out from under my 

kitchen sink, and try to figure out where the water drips are coming from.

Oh, hideous kitchen tile.  You WILL be a future demolition project.

Next, I need to bury the poor roadkill bunny from in front of my house.

RIP, little bunny.

I'm sorry people up the street drive so fast.

For something a little cheerier, I need to check how many people

are reblogging and liking my Philly Justice Confessions submission:

This... is a hard one to explain.  How about you just head over to Hulu

and let the hilarious Amy Poehler do the story (Philly) justice?

Now, it's time to head upstairs and scope out my seedlings.

As I detailed in my last post,

I'm experimenting with different containers for starting seeds.

But before I check out my baby plants, why don't I take a look at the wooden spatula

I use to stir my potting soil?

***  Cue ominous music***

Wait... what?  What is that fuzzy white stuff all over my spatula?!?

I'm sure it's nothing... nothing...  it's just moldy because

it's been closed up in a container with damp potting soil.

*** ominous music gets louder***

Now, how are the seedlings doing?

  

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Lookin' good, Sungold tomatoes!  You're getting your second set of leaves!

Standing tall, sunflowers!  You're off to a great start!

Whoa, zucchinis!  You are bustin' out of your peat pot!

Hey, basil and marigolds!  You're....

*** ominous music hits a screeching crescendo***

WHAT IS GOING ON, NEWSPAPER POTS?!

Do you see that? Do you see that yellow and white funk all over the outside of the pots?

It's on the surface of the soil, too!

What kind of cooties are on my pots?!?

Some quick Googling explains that I have MOLD because my pots are too damp.

ME!  Over-watering!!!

I just got bit in the booty by the Hubris Fairy.  I confidently wrote in 

my last post that I didn't need drainage holes in my pots, 

since I've never killed a plant with over-watering.

SO.

I'm going to try again.  I promised my Sweet Man I would try to save 

some of the baby plants, and I'll re-sow some more seeds.

For the sake of Science, I'm going to use both new newspaper pots, 

and some little Dixie cups.

AND... I'm going to poke a hole in the bottom of those Dixie cups.

Let's Get This (Planting) Party Started!

As I detailed in this post, I have an enthusiastic,

but not green thumb.

However, I try to learn from my mistakes,

and wanted to try once more to fill my garden with edibles.

I was going to do what I had done last year -- attach a fluorescent shop light

to two sawhorses,

and then...

via Pinterest...

I saw this:

It's... it's... BEAUTIFUL.  And simple.  And space saving.

I HAD TO DO IT.

It was easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy to put together wire shelves, attach lights,

and set the whole thing up in the Girl's unused bedroom.  (She's away at college.)

Then, it was time for the fun part:

starting the seeds!

I had... a few...

So I gathered my containers:

my potting soil:

... and got planting!

Last year, I had a lot of success with yogurt containers.

I started a bunch of tomato plants and basil plants in them, and they worked out well.

The only problem is, they're round, and so they don't fit as nicely in 

the cardboard cat food trays as I would like.

So this year, I thought I'd try something else, too.

I had a LOT of rectangular feta cheese containers:

I put seeds at both ends, so I figure I could get at least two plants out of each container.

Do you know what I didn't put in either of these containers, though?

HOLES.

Yup, I'm livin' on the edge.  I've never over-watered a plant,

but I've certainly lost them to under-watering. I just put nice, moist potting soil

in the containers, and water them when the top dries out.  It worked pretty well last year.

Left over from last year were these peat pots I bought and didn't have much success with.

I think I tried... carrots? in them last year?  But they didn't work.  They kept drying out.

This year, I'm placing them in an empty plastic container, to keep them moister.

Also, I used them for the zucchini seeds.  I guess zucchini is supposed to be direct-sown,

but since my gardening area isn't ready yet, I figured this would be the next best thing.

Something cool I'm trying this year is this:

It's this nifty little wooden gadget that makes newspaper pots to start seedlings.

I got it for the Girl off of Etsy last year, but sadly the buyer is no longer there.

You can find more of them on the Wide Wide World of Web, though.


ETA:  Check out my next post to see how these newspaper pots are faring.

Last year, the Girl and I tried these on a sunny windowsill and outside, but they didn't work.

I'm hoping that cramming them all together inside under the lights will keep them moist

and ready to grow:

What's the plan when these get bigger?

I'll transplant some, use the plastic containers that I used for the zucchini peat pots for others, and I'll also use these:

 They're free, and a great size for the tomato plants!

Btw, what didn't I use?

Egg cartons:

I tried those last year, with no success.  Maybe they'd work better inside,

but there's about a tablespoon of potting soil in each cup!

They dry out so quickly!  The poster did fine, so, y'know, it could just be me.

There you go.  Wish me luck with my new plantings!