Seedling update
My first set of plant babies have almost all sprouted now, and most are doing well.
My spindly, leggy tomatoes are much stronger now that they've been getting halfway decent amounts of light. The weather had been nice enough for the last week or two that I stopped bringing them all the way indoors for temperature safety. The porch isn't really sufficient for them since it gets tree shade the first half of the morning and then roof shade from afternoon on, but I've been sunning them outside whenever the weather is reasonable, and after they come back in I've got a daylight range OTT light on them from then until bedtime.
The dill has also started out painfully thin and leggy, so I've been crowding that up against the tomatoes under the OTT light as much as I can. I think, though, that it's going to go fully outside Real Soon Now. It should be sufficiently cold tolerant, and the herb bed is getting plenty of light for most of the day. I just wish the veg bed were getting that much sun!
All the rest of the herbs seem to be doing decently so far. It's still a few weeks to 90% last frost date, so I'm waffling between hoping the light on the porch really is enough, or setting their jugs out in the herb bed. Half the herbs are intended to go there, and half are planned for interplanting amongst the veg.
Yesterday I took all the plant babies out for a sunning, including the lavender, rosemary, and lemon thyme pots MiL acquired while I was away getting shot.
I still haven't loosened dirt in the veg bed to plant the radishes and lettuces. I was hoping to have summoned the resolution and spoons at the same time this weekend, but... rain... Meh.
Yesterday, though, I did at least shove cucumber, cilantro, and kale seeds into starting mix.
I had been hoping for Tuscan lacinato, but the kale variety MiL bought while I was away is a Siberian heirloom. I can't say I'm truly disappointed, since even though it wasn't at the top, that too was on my short list to try. I probably ought to have stuck that directly into the garden because it ought to be ridiculously cold hardy, but I want to see it actually sprout first so I'll know the difference between that and weeds. I've never grown kale before. Once it has true leaves, out it goes.
Cilantro is also quite cold hardy, but I have some baggage there. I have never successfully grown it before, because it has always been attacked by varmints before it got a fair start. So I planted those seeds in a milk jug for protection, but then I plopped that straight down in the herb bed.
The cucumbers of course will be staying on the porch until May. Those guys aren't much more cold tolerant than tomatoes.
I really do need to soak the peas and get those started, too, but first I need to pin MiL down on how many she wants of each variety. Crossposted from https://montuos.dreamwidth.org/1756619.html ;
comments on original post. If you do not have a Dreamwidth ID and you want to read comments on protected posts there, you can log in with OpenID using your LJ ID.
My spindly, leggy tomatoes are much stronger now that they've been getting halfway decent amounts of light. The weather had been nice enough for the last week or two that I stopped bringing them all the way indoors for temperature safety. The porch isn't really sufficient for them since it gets tree shade the first half of the morning and then roof shade from afternoon on, but I've been sunning them outside whenever the weather is reasonable, and after they come back in I've got a daylight range OTT light on them from then until bedtime.
The dill has also started out painfully thin and leggy, so I've been crowding that up against the tomatoes under the OTT light as much as I can. I think, though, that it's going to go fully outside Real Soon Now. It should be sufficiently cold tolerant, and the herb bed is getting plenty of light for most of the day. I just wish the veg bed were getting that much sun!
All the rest of the herbs seem to be doing decently so far. It's still a few weeks to 90% last frost date, so I'm waffling between hoping the light on the porch really is enough, or setting their jugs out in the herb bed. Half the herbs are intended to go there, and half are planned for interplanting amongst the veg.
Yesterday I took all the plant babies out for a sunning, including the lavender, rosemary, and lemon thyme pots MiL acquired while I was away getting shot.
I still haven't loosened dirt in the veg bed to plant the radishes and lettuces. I was hoping to have summoned the resolution and spoons at the same time this weekend, but... rain... Meh.
Yesterday, though, I did at least shove cucumber, cilantro, and kale seeds into starting mix.
I had been hoping for Tuscan lacinato, but the kale variety MiL bought while I was away is a Siberian heirloom. I can't say I'm truly disappointed, since even though it wasn't at the top, that too was on my short list to try. I probably ought to have stuck that directly into the garden because it ought to be ridiculously cold hardy, but I want to see it actually sprout first so I'll know the difference between that and weeds. I've never grown kale before. Once it has true leaves, out it goes.
Cilantro is also quite cold hardy, but I have some baggage there. I have never successfully grown it before, because it has always been attacked by varmints before it got a fair start. So I planted those seeds in a milk jug for protection, but then I plopped that straight down in the herb bed.
The cucumbers of course will be staying on the porch until May. Those guys aren't much more cold tolerant than tomatoes.
I really do need to soak the peas and get those started, too, but first I need to pin MiL down on how many she wants of each variety. Crossposted from https://montuos.dreamwidth.org/1756619.html ;
comments on original post. If you do not have a Dreamwidth ID and you want to read comments on protected posts there, you can log in with OpenID using your LJ ID.