Seedling Progress

Sorry I haven't been around much (if anyone actually reads this)! I've been having some personal stuff going on, but I'm hoping to get a lot done this weekend, so expect some posts next week! I've got an out of state wedding coming up at the end of the month, so I wont be around then, either.

Anyways! I wanted to share how well my little seedlings are doing! It's been about 3 1/2 weeks since I've planted the little buggers, and I still haven't done any research on them, and they doing super. It's so exciting to wake up every day, run downstairs and see how big they've grown. My sugar snap peas are literally growing an inch a day. It's insane.

Here you can see the sugar snap peas and the broccoli. They are doing the best. Ignore the hair dryer, I'm sure everyone has a hair dryer in their kitchen. See how they are bending to the right? That's where our screen door is.

The basil has just started coming up (far left). The cilantro (left) is doing great! I'm happy with this, since cilantro is the herb that I use the most. The oregano (right) has just barely started sprouting. Its very small and thing in comparison to the basil and cilantro. And finally we have the catnip (far left) which is coming up slowly but surely. Also, please ignore the mess. We just had breakfast, and my boyfriend has been home from work all week, so there is stuff everywhere...

I'm pretty happy with this lot. They just started coming up and then they started going crazy. To the left you can see the chives, the parsley in the center, and the green onions on the right. I have some green onions in the fridge from the grocery store I will be planting this weekend. Can never have too many green onions.

And these are my slow growers. I have them directly in front of my back door. The roma tomatoes just started coming up on the left there. Nothing with the sweet peppers in the center, and a single sprout for the big boy tomatoes on the right. I plan on making a calender today on when they should be planted outside, and all that good jazz.

For a little over three weeks, its not bad progress! I can't wait for the day when I can actually pick something edible off them!

Seedlings Planted!

That's right, over the weekend I finally made it to Home Depot, no thanks to that old to-do list, and managed to pick up some seeds while I was there. I managed to pick up the following:

• Peat Cells (3 Packages of 32)
• Vigoro Tomato and Vegetable Food (I'll admit I have no idea what to do with this, yet)
• Miracle Grow Flower and Vegetable Soil
• Vegetable Seeds:
• Watermelon (didn't plant yet)
• Roma Tomato
• Big Boy Hybrid Tomato
• Gourmet Blend Lettuce Leaf (didn't plant yet)
• Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce Leaf (didn't plant yet)
• Green Onion
• Broccoli
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Green Peppers
• Herb Seeds:
• Catnip
• Italian Parsley
• Oregano
• Cilantro
• Chives
• Sweet Basil

I have no experience gardening, or starting seeds. I read a little bit about it online, but really, not enough to actually know what I was doing. I figured I'd just jump into it and see what ended up growing.

This was my set up. I don't know what the weather is like where you're from, but it was 30 degrees in Mass, and I did not feel like bundling up, so I grabbed a cardboard box, a little packing tape to make sure the bottom was all sealed so dirt didn't fall everywhere, my peat cells, seeds, spoon, and (not pictured) a small glass bowl.

 I filled each cell with one spoonfull of the soil. Some seeds said they had to be buried 1/4" from the surface, others were 2" so make sure you plan your soil accordingly! I lightly packed the dirt down with my fingers.

This is my photographic attempt at showing what the soil looks like with a hole in it for the seeds. I suppose if you're smart, you'll just follow the instructions for planting the seed however deep its supposed to go. I did a sort of mixed method where I put some seeds in the hole, then spread some out along the rest of exposed dirt, just so there more chance of getting them to grow. Or to smother them, I'm not really sure.

I was having a really hard time getting the seeds out of the bag and into my cells without dumping too many in one and leaving others bare, so I grabbed a tiny glass bowl to dump them into. It made it so much easier to distribute!

These are the tomatoes, you can see a few of the seeds are tucked away in their little holes, and some are spread out on the top layer.

Then I just topped them off with more soil, lightly packed, and spritzed them with lukewarm-ish water. Should the water be lukewarm? I don't know. I read on one of the prepared green house starter kits at Home Depot it should be for that kit, but I figured, it couldn't hurt my little seeds. Right?

And that my friends, is how I started my seedling journey. To those who are interested in perhaps starting their own seed adventure, here is how much mine cost:

3 Peat Cells (Package of 32):	$7.77 ($2.59 each)
Vigoro Tomato & Veg. Food (3.5 lb):	$5.98
Miracle Gro Flower/Veg Soil (1 CF):	$3.33
Seeds:	$15.19 (~$1 per pack)
Total: $32.27

Anyone else starting some seeds? Or a garden? I plan on posting a tutorial on how to make your own plant labels, and if you have nice handwriting (in comparison to my awful handwriting) they are super cute! Stay tuned!