Nifty Idea

I got this great idea from another blogger, Gina (Home Joys). One of the biggest issue I have with seedlings is trying to make sure they get enough light. I put them in the sunniest window sills and hope for the best. I also have to turn them around a lot as they reach for the sun. By simply covering a cut out box with aluminum foil and placing the plants on it I'm hoping that the plants will get more light. I'm sure they don't mind that it is reflected light. I hope it works well. If nothing else, it will keep the cat from taste-testing the young plants!

Hidden Sunshine

I woke up to rather grey and miserable day. You can't tell in this picture but it's raining. If I look closely enough, I can spot the occasion snow flake swirling around in between the raindrops. I'm making a point of not looking real close. The DaM is full of fury and promise as the spring run-off makes an appearance. The wind is not so much blowing as it is snarling around the porch posts and through the tree branches.

Ah well, these days happen, so upwards and onwards. The unwelcome rain will help dislodge the even more unwelcome snow patches stubbornly squatting in the low lying areas. There'll be lots of sunny days to be outside I tell my itchy feet and longing heart (geez, that sounds like something Billy Ray Cyrus would sing about =0). Besides, there's a whole bunch of things I can do indoors that will complement the run-of-the-mill chores...I just have to find them.


The first order of the day, then, will be to start a fire. There's nothing like a good, brisk fire to take the chill and damp out of the day. So I hunt around looking for a few juniper logs to start the furnace. I love the smell of burning juniper.

As the house gets warm and cosy I make a few phone calls. My dear neighbour is in the hospital and I want to hear how she's doing. Nobody's answering; well, he's probably over at the hospital visiting with her. Another call is more productive and I get the low-down on all the doings in and out of our area. This isn't gossip, you understand, it's just news the papers don't see fit to print :P. It's nice connecting with people when the day is dreary, it adds a brightness.

I discover the very first shoots of my celery seeds spearing through the earth. They look so delicate! Barely discernible to the naked eye, they are on the thinnest of stems and the two leaves look like pin-pricks. I don't mind looking real close to spy pale green shoots. I also discover a couple of watermelon shoots. They're big and bold and basically shouting to the world, "We're HERE, we're HERE!!! Let the bells ring out and cheering start 'cause WE'RE HERE!!!" Deafening joy without a sound.

So the day goes. The the kids tromp in and supper needs to be made. It's a perfect day for comfort food so I whip up a rabbit stir fry with fluffy mashed potatoes and dipping sauce. So for a grey day, it was awfully sunshiny around here.

They're Coming Along!...sort of, with a little help.

My tomato plants germinated in a rather hap-hazard fashion. Gee, there's a surprise. Everything around here tends to be on the hap-hazard side. I guess that's what happens when you really don't know what you're doing but you have an inkling. Projects aren't a total failure but they're not a rousing success either; they do tend to work out in the end... sort of, if I don't kill them trying to 'help' them. If we didn't call our place 'The DaM Farm', the 'Hap-Hazard Homestead' or 'The Inkling Way' would have been good alternatives of even 'If We Don't Kill It, We'll Make It Stronger'.

The tomatoes plant are tall but scraggly. Which is an improvement over spindly, when I think about it. Both the Beefsteak and the Heritage seedlings grew the fastest. The Romas had one or two sprouts and I was pretty sure they were a lost cause. However, I've noticed a bunch of new sprouts in the last week or so and they are not spindly/scraggly at all (yet). May-be it's just the type of plant or may-be the seeds were inadvertently planted deeper. I don't know but it's something to muse over for the next year or so. The Beefsteaks and Heritages were both spindly at first. I got some excellent advice, gently run your washed hands over the plants a couple of times a day. Apparently it strengthens the stems. It certainly worked for me. My plants started standing up and growing straight(er). But they are scraggly and they're out-growing the flats they're in so I figured I'd help them along. Hopefully my good intentions won't be the death of them.

Yesterday I transplanted some. Of course, I started with my beautiful, home-grown worm castings (yes, I do make a fuss about them and mention them as much as I can but only because they have been one of the very few rousing successes). I just harvested four bags, about 13 - 15 pounds. I mixed the castings in with the earth at about a 1 or 2 parts castings per 10 parts earth ratio. I had to buy the earth because all my compost is still frozen solid. I'm kind of thinking that I should bag some compost in the fall and keep it inside. But let's not go there right now; I really don't want to be planning fall activities when Spring is set to cover the land in colour, warmth and dreams.

`

Once I had the earth mixed, I got all my collected containers ready. I basically kept anything I thought would work. I needed tall, narrow containers and frozen juice cans seemed to fit the bill well. Another lovely piece of advice I received was burying the seedling right up to their first, false leaves when transplanting This will make the plant sturdy and less straggly (and a lot shorter). So I did that. My biggest fear here is that with the roots right on the bottom, it will be difficult to know when they need to be watered. I noticed with the couple of plastic containers I used (ran out of juice cans), it's easy to see the water trickle down. Or may-be what I should have done was take the bottoms off and put screen or newspaper on instead. May-be with the next flats. This is one of the reasons I started with the Beefsteak seedlings, I have two flats of those so I figured I'd try one and see what happens. If they do ok, I'll transplant the others. If they die, well I have another flat of them so not all is lost (ah, there's another apropos name for our place).

So here they are, all set for a sunny window. They looked a little droopy right after being transplanted but that usually happens so I wasn't too concerned. Today, they are all very upright, happy looking little plants. So far so good :) (Another name that would work well if we didn't already call this place The DaM Farm).