Regardless of how I am going to be doing this spring, I am going to need plants, unless I am dead, in which case some one else will need plants, so today I got my hands in the dirt for a while.
Patti took me and the baby to Otten Brothers Nursery to get some sterile seed starting mix. In warmer weather I would just do it outside with regular soil, but dealing with having plants in a cool basement once they sprout, I find that using the sterile mixtures to start the seeds helps prevent them from damping off (rotting) early in the seedlings life.
The sterile mixes have the nasty tendency to be desert dry when you get them, and they will not take water oftentimes. The way I found around that was to put the mix into a pyrodex casserole container, add water, put the glass lid on it, and microwave it for about 7 minutes. Then I take it out, mix it up with a fork, cover it again, and let it cool to the point it can be handles. The steaming does a better job of hydrating it without getting it soggy.
I like using the plastic clamshell containers that strawberries and other produce from the grocery store comes in. They are clear, have drain and vent holes, and my mom goes through a ton of them at her B&B down in Red Wing so I can get far more than I would ever need.
Today it was just onions, flat leaf Italian parsley, and the long season Lemon Drop peppers (shown above, just saved whole dried peppers). Next round will be my just-in-case early tomatoes so I have some ready if it is warm in March again. Was nice to get my hands dirty, even if it was just for a little while.
I put all of the clam shells on a shelf above the stove. It is an old style pilot light gas stove so it is quite a bit warmer up there, which will help the peppers, although it is not necessary for the others. It will hurry them along though and when all have emerged I can get them under the grow lights in the basement. <grin> The season of growing starts today.
Just started all of my cherry tomato’s today. Yep, had to get my hands in soil too. Will be starting my flowers shortly as well, as the winter came in with a flourish in Oct. ’12 and stayed, so I figure an early spring. Not enough snow though, so it may be terribly dry… Had a good tomato trial last year…man, did it hail here, and your tomato’s just kept right on growing like nothing had ever happened, lol.
Looking forward to your new tomato seeds, etc. Sure hope that I can get through fast enough this year though. It seemed that as soon as they were posted…”they were gone..”,
If you need more seed (and I have a good enough year), I can send some your way from good old Alberta.
And by the way, don’t you dare die on us…
Talk with ya later and take care…
~Kat (from Alberta)
Good Morning,
I was reading about the problems with your back. I to have gone through living hell. Five years ago I was given a year to live because of all the pain medications I was on. RF ablations epidural injections every month etc. etc.I was to a point of contemplating suicide as a way out. I then walked through the doors of a country church. What happened the next year was nothing but a gift from God. I now have a medtonic implant. I am back gardening, I have my life back and our farm now is serving the Lord. You will be in our prayers.
with Gods grace, Anne and Bob Gothard
I am heartened to hear that you are finding a way through it all. What else can you do but continue on? Suicide is not on my radar, speculative or otherwise. If I had lost my girls to the accident maybe my mind would be in a different place, but that did not happen. All I can do is continue to show them the best way to live I know, and help them adapt while growing to this endlessly interesting train wreck of a society they will have to survive in.