Seedlings Coming Up All Over!
I have so many seedlings coming up.
And now I am worried about the transplanting into bigger pots. At least some of them I planted originally in larger pots, but some of them are sprinkled and now sprouting in a large tray. Those will have to be transplanted.
I have grown these outside all during late winter and spring. I have put up my small zipped vinyl greenhouse so that I can now open the lids and uncover the tops of all my plant containers so I won’t have to worry about too much or too little watering.
And if you wonder about those pieces of wire plant shelves over the top of my growing pots? Those are squirrel and chipmunk guards. We have a lot of curious “diggers” around here.
I have grown plants by winter sowing which is planting at the winter solstice or soon after. You plant in enclosed containers with holes poked in them for drainage. The seeds go through the regular freeze-thaw cycle that they would in nature and emerge strong and sturdy and already conditioned for spring temperature fluctuations. Check out this post.
And now I am starting to see the little green shoots coming up. It is so exciting. I have most of my seeds planted in fairly large pots but I will pot them into larger containers if it is needed. Hopefully, not too many will need to be transplanted. So much to do!
You can see in some of these photos that our back yard is a complete dust bowl. (This is the reason we don’t have any grass there. We removed the pool.) No grass growing and all of it needs to be seeded. But we will have to further level it out and fill just a little it seems. I dread that ordeal but what else can we do. I have been studying grasses so that I will be sure to get what I want. I will take advice from the grass man and the lawn people, but then I am stubborn and I want to read all about it and get all different opinions.
But as for my seedlings, I have looked up information all over the internet, and it seems there are different opinions on average dates for a last frost, but for my zip code I am going with April 22 as the average last frost date. So we are good to go now.
Of course, I jinxed us and now there is a hard freeze warning for Wednesday.<sigh>
I will plan on getting everything re-potted and ready for the Annual Plant Sale in May. I sure hope I have a lot of nice donations to share with the gardeners here in the area.
Are you growing from seed this year? Any advice on what grass seed mixture to use on my yard? All suggestions welcomed.
Great post. Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi Kim,
Wow you do have plants everywhere. We actually put some plants in the ground today, hoping it won’t be to early, I just love digging in the dirt and planting. Wishing you and your family a very Happy Easter and thanks so much for sharing your great post!
Miz Helen
Thank you, Miz Helen. And you have a wonderful Easter also. I am planning your Corn and Green Chili’s Casserole and I know it will make the family happy….and hot! Going after eggs for my grandson to color. It should be fun.
Sorry, I don’t know anything about grass, but I did start a lot of plants from seed this year. I followed the traditional last freeze dates for my area, but this year was not normal. The cold air lingered and then I was bombarded by heavier than normal rainfall. By the time it warmed up, the ground was too wet to plant. My tomato plants were 3 feet long by the time I planted them. I snapped the necks on four plants trying to plant them, but luckily I grew extra. In the end, they all got planted, so I’d say I have a happy ending. I hope you do too.
Ally, that is so funny. I can just see 3 feet long tomato seedlings. Sounds like mine when I tried them in the window sill. Did you know the old fashioned way of planting tomatoes? Bury them all the way up to the top leaves and roots will just grow from that 3 foot stem. In your case, just lie them on their sides and plant. They will turn upwards in a day or so. But that was funny. I have snapped the necks on so many plants.LOL