Temporary Lodging

Remember this day last month?  The day we got the ball rolling? Well, the seed-starting kit worked quite well, and phase two of Growing Season 2012 is ready to begin.

 So even as I'm using up the final bulb of last year's garlic and coaxing the indoor parsley to continue in its little pot for just a little while longer...

 ...even now I'm carrying out the tools for chapter two in the seedlings' story.  Best pointers I know to give from my past gardening experience are:  reuse the little spring flower containers for hardy-stemmed starts like sunflower seeds.  But for the more tender seedlings of spring, use the peat pots that can be plopped directly into the soil later without having to disturb the little plant when you bury it.  Also, go ahead and invest in specific "seed starter" mix rather than simple potting soil.  Newbie plants really do prefer it.  Finally, label what's growing.  A bag of tongue depressors and a sharpie are sufficient and cheaper than the specific garden markers you buy at the nursery.  You may think them unnecessary, that in a month that you'll be able to remember/see what's what in those peat pots, but just in case you can't tell the broccoli from the brussels sprouts and want some order to your garden, give yourself reminders of what's growing in those little transplant stations.

The spongy seed starter hits an A-rating again: it simply slices into blocks that can be directly placed in the peat pots, again, affording less risk of damage to those oh-so-tender root-lets.  May have to go the sponge bed route again.

Back inside in the same sunny window, only now with a more "mature" (let's say tweener) growing situation.  Now...Hope Night.  That night when you "hope" the little tykes decide to thrive in their new homes. 

As for kitty, he's unimpressed.  Not until I throw open the windows will the season of long spring naps in the windowsill replace the season of long winter naps on top of the couch.

Happy time-between!