Well, it has begun. For the rest of the year I will have dirt under my fingernails. Here's what I've done so far: I pulled up all of the irrigation from last year and re-laid out the garden beds. Some of them were OK but some were just too wide. I can comfortably reach 1 1/2' into a bed, so I laid out all of the beds to be 3' wide, leaving 1 1/2' - 2' paths in between. We did set aside some space for a nice 6' x 8' greenhouse but I'm not sure I'll be able to get it. Last year Costco offered a coupon for $300.00 off and I was expecting the same this year, but so far I haven't seen the discount. But I have a plan B, and it may work out even better. What I have done is started my seedlings in my AeroGarden. I was hoping that by the time they were ready to transplant into little pots that I'd have a greenhouse. However, since that didn't work out, I have decided to get a 4' long grow light to put them under, and they will sit in my kitchen behind the sink where there is just enough room for that. What makes this potentially better is that I'll be able to keep an eye on the seedlings every day. In the greenhouse they might dry out but in my kitchen that won't happen. So, the space where the greenhouse was going to go can now become the home of one of those cheap plastic storage shed things that you get from a home improvement store. I just need someplace to keep my bags of soil, gloves, gardening tools, etc. I think this will work out very well.
Here's what my AeroGarden looks like:
So, here's where I am now: A month ago I started some kale, lettuce, mustard greens, spinach, and celery in the AeroGarden. Yesterday I transferred all of the seedlings except for the celery and the smallest 2 kale into little 6-pack seedling pots. Here are the seedlings:
For now they are sitting in front of the sunniest window that we have but the truth is they won't get enough sunlight. And they will all grow sideways to reach the light. The grow light has been ordered and hopefully it will arrive soon.
Here's what my AeroGarden looks like:
So, here's where I am now: A month ago I started some kale, lettuce, mustard greens, spinach, and celery in the AeroGarden. Yesterday I transferred all of the seedlings except for the celery and the smallest 2 kale into little 6-pack seedling pots. Here are the seedlings:For now they are sitting in front of the sunniest window that we have but the truth is they won't get enough sunlight. And they will all grow sideways to reach the light. The grow light has been ordered and hopefully it will arrive soon. Today I started some more seeds in the AeroGarden: 3 kinds of tomatoes and some beets. For the 3rd year I'm going to try beets. Hopefully this will be my successful year. The last 2 years they have been direct seeded and just never did well. So this year I will grow seedlings and transplant them when they are stronger. I'll see if that makes a difference.
Very soon, hopefully later this week or next week, I need to go and direct seed the carrots into the garden. I have decided to plant some normal orange ones as well as some "Atomic Red" carrots. Plus I'll see if I have any yellow carrot seeds left over from last year but I think I planted them all.
