Thursday, March 19, 2009

Planting Time Begins - Part Two

After looking at the projected maximum temps for the next two weeks, and seeing no days below zero, I decided to be brave as a lion and put tomato seeds into my "Greenhouse".

This morning I drug out the bag of peat pots, the transparent salad containers I'd been saving, and the seeds.

I planted:

  • Eight pots of "Sweet Million", which have done very well for me in the past.
  • Seven pots of "Gardener's Delight". Who knows what these are? Says an indeterminate with "smallish" tomatoes. I'm adventurous.
  • Seven pots of "Tumbler - F1 hybrid" - This is also a variety which has performed well for me in the past.

In the end I could only get two of the three "flats" into the bag greenhouse, so I popped the plastic top from the salad container on the Tumblers and will take it off as soon as they sprout.

Since the seeds I planted yesterday tolerate cool temps well, I can probably put them in a sunny sheltered spot and leave the pickier tomatoes in the greenhouse bag.

Of course I did all this before tackling any housework, so must now get up and clean, do dishes and start dinner in the crockpot. I figured if I cleaned before I'd just have to clean after as I was going to get dirt everywhere in the kitchen anyway. (Well, saying "I was going to get dirt everywhere", makes a good excuse to do gardening before housework. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

Oh, and I solved the cat problem by putting the "greenhouse" in the bathtub and closing the shower door. :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

OF course now every time you wish to bath or shower you must throw the cat outside or wash with the "greenhouse".

Deb said...

Bathe? Shower? Not until my seedlings are ready for the garden in May! You have to set your priorities my dear.

What? You're canceling your April visit?
Darn! Nobody comes to see me anymore!

Anonymous said...

Hi Deb, I do so love your posts, they are such fun to read. Like you, I am just sick to death of winter and I get such a thrill to see sunshine in the morning. I also want to run out and start planting, but night frosts are still making regular appearances, so must just dream about the feel of my fingers pressing seedlings into warm soil.

My one experience with planting seeds was a disaster. It was about 20 years ago when I set to, with gusto, and planted my seeds. As my home was the snoozing place of five cats at that time, I decided that the safest place for my experiment, was the en-suite bathroom. This sanctuary was the domain of Dave and myself, never were assorted children allowed to enter this cherished area and the cats had never shown an interest in this spot. There was lots of sunshine but no windowsill, so no good napping spots for the cats.

I used three old plastic dishes, that used to be cat litter boxes, until we went very "modern" with covered litter boxes. I scrubbed the dishes and left them out, in the frost, to sanitize. I used egg cartons to plant the individual seedlings, very economical and, as they were biodegradable, could be planted, as is, when the time was right.

Day by day I tended my little garden and then the first shoots came through. I don't thnik I had been more excited when I had delivered my twin daughters, as I was to see the tny green shoots!

I eagerly awaited the day when I could take my babies out into the garden and plant them in their new home. Then disaster struck. Coming home from work one day, I went into the bathroom to shower, turned around to greet the 'babies' and was horrified to see that the cats had reclaimed the litter boxes and then scratched up every last seedling. It had to be a combined effort, from at least three of the five felines, to have created such havoc. The seedlings finished up on the compost heap and the experiment was never repeated. Ever since then, I buy bedding plants, not as rewarding but much safer, when dealing with calculating cats. Pat

Outhouse Capital of Canada said...

Hi
Just popping by to say hello, read through a few of your posts, not sure about the TP replacement.