Starting Seeds

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I would have more to say about the photo of the seedlings... so here we go.

Some vegetable plants do much better when they are started in pots and then transferred to the ground once they are more of an "established" plant, as opposed to a seed planted directly in the dirt. Starting seeds also aids in growing plants earlier in the season, especially when there is six inches of snow on the ground in late March! Among the seeds we have started are tomatoes and peppers, two veggies we will be growing in plenty this season. We are growing heirloom varieties, such as Cherokee Purple tomatoes and Marconi peppers (to name a couple) - yum! For more information on Heirloom and Heritage terminology, click on this link to read an informative article.

Starting seeds in pots requires time and patience, and a warm room! Bob transformed his "ex" office into a seed sprouting room, and he did an excellent job! We currently have more than 500 seedlings up... in round one of starting seeds (we will be planting three rounds/stages of seeds to space out our harvesting season. Lord willing, we may plant a fourth round, to prolong the season, if we are able to get a high tunnel up this year).

The 500+ seedlings include several varieties of Marigolds and Zinnias, which will be planted alongside our vegetables for pest control and good bug recruiting (once again, I'll write more on this in another post).

Our "high-tech" dirt thermometer was once used to test whether the chicken cooking on the BBQ was done...

 Bob also designed this "NASA-quality, solar concentrator" (very technical term), AKA, a piece of camping space-blanket wrapped around a chunk of cardboard. Works great for those seedlings ready to come out from under the lamps!

As you can see, we are not letting the snow hinder us too much. We are bound and determined to have a good time while we wait for spring to finally show up.

Until next time,