New Seeds

Look at our new seed starting shelf! After one successful trip to Menard's, I rigged up a shop light to a set of metal shelves. The set of shelves looked rather small in the box, but they turned out to be pretty huge. Sure, I read the dimensions printed on the box, it just that 72 inches didn't mean much to me until I lifted the shelves up against the wall and realized the top shelf was way over my head. Can you believe I put this whole thing together myself? Yeah me!

The shelves have taken over a wall in our family room, but for now it looks pretty decent. Randy hoped I'd move the contraption down to the basement, but I'm afraid if we leave the seeds down there, I'll forget them. With everything in the room we live the most in, I should be able to give them the daily attention they'll need. Hopefully the shelves will look even nicer with a bunch of green plants growing on them. For now, I only set up one shop light on one shelf. Later this week, I plan to buy two more shop lights.

This afternoon, I set out a tray of onion and broccoli seeds. These are not the easiest seeds to learn to propagate with, so this should be interesting. I only set out a few of each, so I still have plenty of seeds left in the pack. If this attempt totally bombs, I'll plant the remaining seeds outside in late April.

Of course, this means it is time to buy more seeds. All of my vegetable seeds arrived in the mail and are waiting to be planted, but it is time to buy some flower seeds. This week, I plan to run by Kelly Seed, the best garden supply store in our area. It's a Ma and Pa store--kinda a throw back to an old-fashioned hardware and farm supply store. This time of year, the store's isles are cram-packed with trowels of various sizes, boxes full of peat pots, garden clogs, leather gloves, assorted bulbs, bags of bone meal, and of course seeds. I've got a list, and it is time to stock up.

My sister Mary asked where to go to get some basic gardening know-how. This is a question I'm still looking to answer. I've checked out most of the gardening books available at my local library, and I find that the experts who write these books often contradict each other. I also find I do not enjoy the books that are strictly "how to"' books. Instead, I prefer the books that are more chatty than informative. This may make for great reading, but I'm not sure if I'm building my gardening "chops." Our sister Wendy once recommended kid gardening books, because they break down gardening to it's most basic. On the internet, I like the web site You Grow Girl, though it has not been updated in a while. It seems like a lot of experienced gardeners participate in the GardenWeb forums, which I browse from time to time. This year, I'm hoping to learn the most about gardening by spending time with my hands in the dirt.
- posted by Laurie @ 6:16 PM