Things are really going along at a rapid pace now. I have nearly 35 of the 58 plant varieties at some stage of growth. In fact, I may be done starting stuff indoors now. The seed box is still loaded with seed, but mostly things that will be planted directly outdoors in the ground. If I start any more indoor seeds it might be romaine. But then again, I might just wait on that. The weather has been tremendous the past couple of weeks with the highs mostly in the 50's, sometimes low 60's and even once already at 70 degrees. The nighttime lows hover in the upper 30's mostly, but have dipped below freezing a time or two. Forecast shows more of the same for the next week ahead, so it's looking like that garden might just get started pretty soon!At this point, I am waiting for the ground to dry out a bit. After the heavy snow we had a few weeks back and very recent snow-melt, and now some rainy periods- the ground is sloppy wet with mud. The husband of a good friend is going to till the garden plot for me when he gets back from Brazil in a couple weeks- not sure if he knows that or not though :0)
Progress to date- starting from just two flats of seedlings, I am now up to 15 flats, 7 grow lights and I had to add another shelving unit to the mix. To accomplish that I spent a few hours freeing up some shelving in my pantry. The shelves were the freestanding wire type which were sitting in the pantry area loaded with food items. The shelves didn't fit the pantry very well (too shallow and narrow) so there really wasn't enough shelf space and a lot of small appliances were piled up in the corner to the side of the shelves. I had some old wire closet style shelves with brackets in a closet (being stored, not in use) on my back porch. It occured to me they might fit the pantry and to my surprise were almost exactly the dimensions needed. So, empty the pantry, remove shelving, install "new" shelving, re-load pantry complete with labels and lots of organization (shocking I know). Then the shelves were now free to be the new home of many little seedlings.
When this is all over and the seedlings are happy in the outdoor garden, the recently freed wire shelving unit will be put to work organizing other stuff in the laundry room and the plastic shelves can go in storage until next year when I get my garden going again.
I have been watching the perrenial gardens to decide how things are going outdoors and if perhaps we might be closing in on a planting time- I think we are! I now have Daffodils on the verge of bloom, Snow Drops in full bloom, Hellebores on the verge (I think they are later than last year for some weird reason), Tulips, Hyacynth and Iris all sprouting, Day Lillies coming up, and some lovely yellow flowers which were most definitely not there last spring. I have no idea what they are, but look a little like Butter Cups- but not.
Tomorrow is the Ides of March. We've seen daylight saving come back, and Wednesday will be the wearing of the green. Spring is coming for sure!
