Seedlings, seedlings everywhere!

There has been a lot of seed sowing action chez moi lately. Almost every weekend I find myself sitting on my dining room floor with the seedling tray on a towel and dirt and seeds and water everywhere. Looking at it, you'd think a toddler had gotten into the gardening supplies. I guess I'm just not a particularly neat gardener.

I know I'm starting my seedlings very early, but Boston is a little warmer than the rest of the state and everything I've read says that the last frost date should be between April 15 and April 25. And the fact that I'm container gardening and have an unheated sunroom at the front of the house facing South also helps. Boston weather means that between Monday and today we've had snow, wind gusts, and 65 degree sunshine-y days. It's a balancing act between running the plants already in their big pots (peas and kale and blueberries) out to the porch to get lots of good sun and bringing them back in quickly before the next freak of weather hits.

First it was the lettuce that I planted. It did really well, except for the few in the center that seemed to wither and die no matter what I did. After about 2 weeks in the seedling try the lettuce got transplanted into some window boxes. I had planned on putting these outside on the porch, but then the snow hit so I thought the indoor windowsill might make a better home for them right now.

After the lettuce came the swiss chard and some herbs. The chard was so neat when it came up! I don't know why, but I wasn't expecting my "Ruby Chard" to be so red so early!

After the chard sprouted came the chamomile. Again, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but those leaves were definitely not it. It's German chamomile, which is supposed to be the best for making tea, so I'm looking forward to that.

There's tons of other things in the seedling tray right now, but I'm way behind on taking photos. Hopefully this weekend I'll have some time to catch up. Right now I have strawberries, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, baby bell peppers, lavender, and basil all sprouting in the seedling tray. And one surprise seed that isn't showing yet, but I'm giving it another week or so.

And what else is coming up this weekend? The Boston Flower and Garden Show!!!! (Yes, I know it's nerdy that I'm excited about this, but I'm really really looking forward to it.) This year's theme is "A Burst of Color: Celebrating the Container Garden" and while they are focusing a lot on flowers, there's TONS of workshops and lectures about vegetable container gardening too. More on that soon!

More Fruit!

On the same theme as yesterday, I decided to try a pineapple from scratch. In this case not a seed, but from a nice organic pineapple from Whole Foods.

This technique is based off a collection of YouTube videos, so I'm not necessarily counting on success here, but it's worth a shot.

Step 1: Take a pineapple and cut the top quarter or so off.













Step 2: Cut all of the fruit meat off of the top. If you leave it on, it will just rot.














Step 3: Cut the top off in little slices until you can see the root buds, or whatever the brown things are.













Step 4: Peel off the bottom few layers of leaves.













Step 5: Let it sit out for a few days so it dries out.
This would have been a boring photo.

Step 6: Set it in a glass of water and let it grow some roots.
This photo hasn't happened yet.
Now I just have to wait and see if I get any root action!

KALE!

Before we joined a CSA last year I'd never had kale. Now I'm addicted. Kale chips. Stewed kale. Kale with bacon and garlic. It's so incredibly delicious. And did you know it's one of THE best vegetables for you? So many vitamins and nutrients that keep you healthy and raring to go so you can tend to your ever-growing garden. Yum.

So when I went to plan my first garden kale was first on the list.

And according to my planting calendar it's about time to sow the seeds indoors, so off we go.

Tiny little round seeds. In the seed started mix in the seedling tray. Light on. Cover on. Heat pad on. Grow babies grow!

5 Days Later

The seed packet days peas take 10-15 days to sprout.

I must have some seriously over-achieving peas.

It's only been five days!

Sowing Peas

Since the seeds arrived it was time to figure out when I needed to sow them indoors for them to be ready for outdoors. Some seeds can be directly sown outdoors in the pot, but others are needy and want some time inside with a grow light and heat pad.

I'm all about pampering my plants, so I headed to Amazon.com to pick out a grow light and heat lamp. I didn't want anything huge since I'm only growing enough for my patio, and I didn't want a light that would suck electricity like mad - don't need the cops showing up asking why my house is causing a spike in the electrical grid... "Officer, it's just tomatoes and peppers, I swear!"

We also got seed starter mix which is a lot lighter than potting soil so that tiny baby roots aren't suffocated. Yup, plants need air just as much as light and water!

Grow Great Grub had a table in the back to fill out based on the last frost in your area (for Boston it's generally considered to be around April 15th). Then you work backwards on how long the seeds take to germinate indoors, how long it will take them to grow to a good size indoors, and then when they can be put outside.

Most of the plants we're doing this summer can't be outside until after the last frost, so we aren't planting much for a while, but there is one plant that likes the cold. In fact, this plant will stop producing food once it gets too warm. Peas!!

Not surprisingly, pea seeds just look like dehydrated peas. Using the instructions on the back of the seed envelope I planted, watered, turned on the light and the heat pad and put on the top to create a greenhouse effect. It increases the humidity and warmth. Time to let the seeds work their magic.