Lots of Life

I wish I could remember what blog I learned to make tags out of containers from to give them credit.  I seriously can't believe I couldn't think of this on my own.  I actually got the petunia colors all mixed up last year when I ran out of tags.  I guess sometimes the easiest solutions can escape a person.

Do you remember how big the geraniums were just about 20 days ago? It's amazing how quickly plants grow.

 Schizanthus standing up tall.

 The Dianthus are coming up.

 Apparently I spilled some Livingstone Daisy seeds because they seem to be sprouting in every flat!!

 Look at those Dahlia's!! Can you see the dime in the middle?

 Roma tomatoes...really wishing I had planted more of these.  Debating starting another flat.

 Out of all the tomatoes the Pineapple variety is growing the fastest and have the strongest stems.

 Lots of California Wonder Peppers for salsa!

 Sweet 100's....I never feel like I have enough tomato plants.

 Look what cucumbers can do in four days.  In thirty days they go to the greenhouse.  They're going to be huge!

 The Kohlrabi reaching for the light.  I slide the trays back and forth all day long so they straighten out.

 There are also multiple trays of Aster's coming up.

 I am now up to 89 trays on the shelves so the grow room is now a hair over half full.



What is planted (approximately...I'll do a solid count as they are put into the ground as many seeds won't germinate and I usually end up killing something before it gets outside)?

Seeded:

Lobelia: 3 flats

Mimulus: 1 flat

Painted Daisy: 144

Sugar Baby Watermelon: 11

Brussels Sprouts: 23

Broccoli: 124

Jalapeno Pepper: 12 6-packs

Habanero Pepper: 8 6-packs

Cherokee Purple Tomato: 48

Gold Nuggets Tomato: 84

Snapdragons: 36 6-packs

Oregano: 21

In the process of sprouting:

Cucumbers: 352

     Olympian

     Garden Sweet

     Muncher

     Spacemaster

     Marketmore 76

Dwarf Aster: 360

Kohlrabi: 144

Early Girl Tomatoes: 54

Wave Petunias: 318

Celosia: 36 6-packs

Nicotiana: 10 6-packs

Joker Pansy: 18 6-packs

Transplanted to individual pots:

Giant Pansy: 6

Tidal Wave Pansy: 7

Livingstone Daisy: 104

Dahlias: 86

    Silk

    Dwarf

    Delight

California Wonder: 56

Schizanthus: 44

Geraniums: 44

Sweet 100's: 56

Roma: 17

A good deal of my germination failure is because I don't use seedling mix.  It is entirely too expensive.  Except for the Wave Petunia seeds, it makes more sense to buy two packets of seeds (on sale) for about $1.08 each and only have half grow than it would be to buy hundreds of dollars worth of the proper planting medium.  Last year I did purchase bags of sterilized soil and that still ended up running me over $300.  This year I am using garden dirt my husband hauled last summer in the back of his truck.  I started out sterilizing it with boiling water and then got lazy.  It doesn't seem to make a difference except with the Petunias.  I learned a hard lesson: buy the right starting mix. 

I am officially out of soil.  I cannot transplant anymore nor start new seeds.  Very anxiety inducing.  Checked the local store and it is $12.99-$14.99 for a big bag.  I bet I could use up ten of them. For around $50 I can get another truckload.  My husband said he saw them digging in the pit, but he isn't sure if they are selling.  He's going to go there tomorrow and hopefully he can bring me home a truck load otherwise this is going to get awfully expensive.

Tomorrow it will be one month until we fire up the greenhouse (if he gets the roof on).  This is more exciting than Christmas!

Would love to hear your gardening stories.....