Saturday, May 01, 2010

Not Early, But Not Late

In the past, when I've started plants indoors, I end up with really leggy, weak seedlings. However, one of the seed packages I bought says "start EARLY", and I want the poor things to have a chance once I plant them outside... which may end up being late, depending on when I get the gardens done. Hopefully by starting them today, I won't be too early, but will still get a head-start on the growing season. If nothing else, they'll be easier to tell from weeds. ;)

The seeds I'm supposed to start early are chili peppers. Now, I don't think my landlord or caretaker are expecting me to plant peppers (they're expecting flowers)... but I thought I might try sneaking one in, and growing one on my window sill. Peppers are ornamental, right?

Other things I want to try on my window sills, once I have something to plant them in, includes: swiss chard, herbs, and perhaps some lettuce or other baby greens.

The rest of the seeds I bought and/or collected for outside are all flowers. My seed-starting efforts involve recycling/reuse: an egg carton, a bunch of toilet paper tubes, two small plastic containers, a tall yoghurt container, a glass baking dish, and a used vegetable bag. (The baking dish will be washed and returned to normal purposes later.)
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I snipped the sides of the toilet paper tubes in case I wanted to remove them before planting. I figured that them being mostly cut to begin with would make it less traumatic for the seedlings.
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Good luck, little seeds! Fight hard, grow strong!

4 comments:

Prairie Chicken... said...

Ugh I hear ya on the leggy seedlings.

Try running a mini fan on them during the day.. an hour or two a few times a day. I read in a gardening mag that it helps.

noricum said...

Oooo! Great idea! :)

Tylppy said...

I like your blog (even thoug it take for a little while to read in English). I'll add your blog to my reading list :).

Greetings from Finland :)

noricum said...

Thank you! :)