Sunday, February 23, 2014

It's Begun!






My little seeds are planted, watered, and on their way to being beautiful big plants. It may still snow, and there's still snow on the ground, but the weather is turning towards spring and it's exciting to feel that in the air. 


In the future, something more sturdy than lights hung from a cord across a bathtub would be cool. But for now it will get the job done.

Today I started: Calabrese broccoli, rainbow Swiss chard, Siberian kale, Bloomsdale long-standing spinach, Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage, borage, hollyhocks, Bowle's black pansy, butter and black-seeded Simpson lettuces, Yellow Wonder wild strawberries, and some kind of basil I grew last year.

When I finish more eggs, I'll also start marigolds and Osaka purple mustard.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

WalMart Wins Again

Even though it looks like this outside...


...I got my seeds in, and I am SO EXCITED. I know that some gardeners out there have already started their seedlings, but I'm planning on this coming weekend to begin.


That is, if I can manage to rig my new grow lights properly. And here it will begin, in egg cartons in my tub in the warmest room of my house just below the glow of some new flourescents.


I'm tempted to buy more seeds, and I may just get a few more that I've been thinking about. Really I have enough, but seeds have become a bad shopping addiction. I any case, I'm happy with what I have. And how much I've spent. So far on seeds $58.84, and on the lights $63.88. Altogether $122.72.

Hold up. When I opened the fluorescent strip lights, I quickly learned there were no plugs. Trying to not let this faze me I turned to YouTube, checked out how to attach plugs, and then turned to WalMart to find the plugs to attach. But as I was looking, I came across these guys:


And each was $11. Cord and plug pre-attached and everything. The other ones are going back to Home Depot, I can definitely get to planting this weekend, and I'm looking at more like $80 so far for the season. Which isn't bad considering you could spend that much in one trip to Whole Foods whereas this is a season's whole growth and some nice reusable equipment.