Flower Power: Garden Makeover - Planting the Seeds

Here we go!! I've officially started gardening. Even though it's cold and windy outside, I stood in the warmth of my kitchen with a fire going, still in my pj's and planted my seeds! I cant even say I got my hands dirty...just my fingers. Gotta love it!

So here we go. These are the seeds I planted in that handy dandy self-watering greenhouse mentioned in the last post...

In case you are Monk insanely observant...you would have noticed from the last post that I got 6 packets of seeds but decided to only plant 5 of them. The "Columbine" flowers were going to take 25 days to germinate and 240 days to bloom. So you're outta here! I'll buy the plant this summer if I still want you. I mean...my patience only goes so far. Everyone else will germinate somewhere around 10-15 days and will bloom within 3 months. I can do that. Oh...except the hollyhock wont actually "bloom" with the pretty red flowers until next year. I decided to give you a chance anyway.

Do you like how I refer to them as "you" instead of "it"? They say it's good to talk nicely to your plants to help them grow. Well, I dont always talk nicely to my own kids...and they still grow. I'm kidding - kinda.

So there I am, planting 70 little pots with various seeds. I did 2-3 rows per type of plant to make it easier on me to keep up with. (Had to put name tags on those little suckers, ya know.) I wasnt sure how many to do, so I tried to do enough to compensate for any death loss (I know...that's a cattle term, but you know what I mean).

Since I'm a follow-the-directions kind of girl I put 2-3 seeds per pot like it said and covered them as directed on the seed packet. To help with handling those tiny seeds...I put them on a little plate...

And looking at that now...makes me wish I had a Coke and a smile (or Dr. Pepper since I cant stand Coke).

Anyway...

With only mild distractions (girls were watching cartoons, but Jake woke up in the middle of my planting, with an unpleasant surprise in his diaper...and he was hungry - go figure) and only one real mess-up (accidentally put a Salvia seed in with the Black-Eyed Susan I'd already planted) I got it done easily enough.

Here it is! I took a pic without the clear plastic top on so you could see it better. Like my name tags? Oh and in case you're new to this like me, they come as little, flat wafers and when you add water they grow and have this little netting around it to hold the soil in. And since they're so tiny you have to dig in it with a pencil to plant the seeds. Fun!

Now we wait.

And wait.

Just one afterthought: Why in the world did I plant Salvia (sage) here in Montana?! That'd be like planting a Mesquite tree in Texas - they're everywhere! Oh well. The picture on the packet was pretty. And if I dont like it, as the saying goes...I brought you into this world garden, I can take you out!

Next steps:

~ Decide what artificial light I want to use for my seeds and where to put them after they sprout (yeah, should have figured that out by now).

~ I'll probably wait a week or two to take the rocks out of the flowerbed and bring in mulch. We're supposed to have a wet week and I need to go thru the kids summer clothes for a consignment sale soon.