Gardening

I’ve had some questions about my process for growing seedlings, so here’s the scoop.  I germinate them in Jiffy pellets which I put in trays with clear plastic domes.  I place these under basic shop lights and fluorescent lights bought at the big box home improvement stores, on heavy duty wire shelves purchased from similar places.  I have a hanging wire shelf above these, and on the right I have narrow plastic shelves given to me by a neighbor who got a real greenhouse.  (covet, covet)  These shelves are in my downstairs furnace room.

Once the seeds come up and have a leaf or two, I remove the domes and when they have two true leaves (or soon after), I take the pellets and place them in 4″ pots filled with Miracle Gro potting soil and put them back under the lights.  These photos were taken April 7 and they had been going for about 3 weeks.

Once the seedlings get all big and healthy-looking, I start moving them out to what I affectionately call my “theater greenhouse”.  This is the other half of the wire shelving, located in my garage with shop lights and bulbs.  A few years ago I wanted to encase it and couldn’t figure out what to use and Scott cleverly came up with this solution.

When Brian was performing in plays at Lone Peak HS, we were in charge of hanging vinyl signs on the fence across from our house.  We took them down when the show was over and the teacher didn’t want them back, so we accumulated a collection, thinking they may come in handy someday.  I put a long one crossways, and a shorter one over the face.  I close the edges with clothespins and it makes a lovely greenhouse that’s cooler than downstairs but warm at night when it gets really cold.  I can lift the side to water and it’s just really awesome.  This is the half-way house for seedlings on their way outside to face the cruel world.  Once it gets warmer, say the middle of April, I start the tedious process of moving trays out during the day and in during the night.  I usually drag the shelves out and uncover them, but I had so many this year that Scott built me a wooden trolley with rope handles for pulling trays in and out. Where I live it’s still too cold at night in April and early May so the plants get used to the warm sun and cooler days, but I protect them from the frosty nights.  By the end of April I check weather daily and if the nights are in the upper 40’s I start letting some of the annuals stay out.  Perennials don’t mind the cold and have been hardened off and in the ground by this time.

The accepted wisdom in Alpine is that you don’t dare plant before Mother’s Day.  I live by this wisdom and there have been cool springs when I’ve waited longer than that.  These photos were taken May 17, after I’d bravely begun to plant some annuals, hoping for no more frost.  Alpine has been known to regularly get June frosts.  Grrr.

The seedlings this year are my best crop ever.  Best germination rate, best harden-off without killing rate, and largest plants at planting time.  I learned everything I know about seedlings from my mother-in-law, the Master Gardener, and even she was impressed with my output this year.  Brag, brag!

Even though there were light snow showers this morning in Alpine, my early daffodils opened over the weekend, so spring must really be on the way!

Fall is here so that means our mailbox has been vandalized again.  This time it was a baseball bat but the pumpkin option is still a future possibility.

And today was the first snow in Alpine-three weeks earlier than last year.  Although it was heavy and stuck to the ground and buildings, now that it’s late afternoon it has retreated to the benches.  Most of my annuals survived the snow, but we’ll see how they do against tonight’s almost-freezing temps.  Indian summer around the corner, I hope?