Seed Starting and Ear Piercing

Oh. My. Goodness. Huge piercing emergency tonight. DD needed to change the hardware in her rook piercing (an odd part of your ear that you probably never knew had a name). Last time was a terrifying disaster and this time was not really better.
After unsuccessfully trying to put the little end back on the bar that was in there, we went to the mall for a ring. Got the ring in with much pain on both our parts, but couldn’t get the connecting ball onto the ring. She ended up going to a piercing/tattoo place on the way to a friend’s house to get it straightened out. It seems like decorating your ears should not be this stressful. 

Anyway, on to gardening, which is much less stressful and sometimes downright peaceful, compared to the rest of the world.

As many gardeners do, I spent the winter planning and scheming and poring over gardening catalogs and researching on the internet. By the end, my design included a respectable 10' by 27' add-on to the garden. And I had a list of plants to start from seed. A friend starts her own plants and shares the extras. They are always so lovely, with interesting varieties not usually available around here, that I was inspired to try starting our plants for the garden.

It seemed like a simple, inexpensive proposition. We had a wire shelf to use and a couple of heated seed-starting trays obtained at an end-of-season clearance, so we only needed a couple of shoplights and the seeds. And lightbulbs. And a couple more trays. And a couple more shoplights with bulbs. And look, we could fit in another flat. And plant markers. And pots in which to transplant. Anyway, you know how it goes. It mushroomed, but it worked out GREAT! Future costs will just be for the things we use up: seeds, starter cells, peat pots, soil.  A packet of seeds (for many things) will last a couple of years.  I really don't want 30 tomato plants of each variety!


Here's what we started:

• Tomatoes: Principe Borghese, Viva Italia, San Marzano, Early Wonder (started March 17)

• Peppers: Ancho 101, NuMex Big Jim, Big Bomb Cherry, Marconi, Pepperoncini, Purple Jalapeno, Fish and a multi-colored ornamental pepper from my brother (started March 17)

• Herbs: Basil, Cilantro, Curly-leaf Parsley, Lemon Balm (started April 1)

• Vegetables: Cisneros tomatillos (started March 17), Spaghetti Squash, Chinese Cabbage, Hale's Best Cantaloupe, Super Dew Honeydew, Broccoli (started April 1)

• Ornamentals: Statice, Cosmos, Impatiens, Hyacinth Bean (started April 1?)

Germination rates were acceptable for most everything.  Seems like I re-sowed a couple of varieties, but because I didn’t write it down, I don’t remember which ones.  We tried to keep the lights just above the plants and had the lights on chains, so they could be raised as the plants grew.  This presented some difficulty, since not all plants in a flat grew to the same height at the same time.  Maybe better panning will help that.  The seedlings used water at different rates, as well, so some were still pretty wet while others in the next cells needed water.  Again, maybe better planning could help.

By the end of April, most things were ready to transplant, but the garden wasn’t quite ready. So, some got transplanted into bigger pots and some languished in their starter pods, all awaiting bigger and better things.  (Next time, I would be better about transplanting to bigger pots sooner.)

Next, getting the garden ready.