It's been a busy month but the plants are in!

I 'm sure anyone who has been following along will be shocked to learn that my original goal of growing a few snapdragons indoors ahead of the current growing season has suffered from a little, shall we say, scope creep.  I ended up with not only a whole crap load of snaps, but also a significant number of marigolds, vincias and dahlias.  So, I have well and truly gone off the deep end with this plant husbandry business.


The really good news is that I have found a place for all of the plants I grew from seed this spring.  No plant give-away this time around.  I still remain in awe that I was able to coax the little buggers from tiny seeds to blooming plants.  Going from this ->

To this!!






Seriously, how cool is that?

So, let's go to the Scoreboard

From this winter/spring indoor sprout-fest I ended up with quite a few plants out in the garden.  Here is the tally:

                                                               Snap Dragons: 112

                                                                        Marigolds: 68

                                                                        Dahlias: 21
                                          OK, so it's a little early for the dahlias I planted this year to
                                                        flower (although they have buds!!)  This one went into the
                                                       ground last year. 

                                                                      Vincias: 28

And some perennials too

Not to be dissuaded, I have also planted seeds directly in the soil for a number of perennials that seemed (at least from the literature) to be happier being direct sown vs. started indoors.  Here's the list:

• Foxglove
• Tritoma
• Achillea
• Gaillardia
• Celosia (OK, so not a perennial)

I decided to follow a suggestion for planting seeds directly in that I use gallon water jugs with the bottoms removed to sit over the seeds and provide a warm humid environment until they germinate.  Once the seedlings make their appearance, the top of the jug is removed to decrease the humidity.  Then when the true leaves begin to appear, the jug is removed completely and the new plants are on their own.  I'd like to say I thought this whole technique up but that would be a fib.  I did extend the idea however and prepped the soil into which the seeds were being placed with a concoction of starter mix, sphagnum moss and vermiculite (hey, it worked indoors).  Once the seeds were in place, I hand dropped some water into the mix and then put the jug in place.

OK, so it does look dorky and more than one neighbor strolled by slowly and then asked "Are those watering jugs?"  to which I usually replied "Nope, greenhouses!"  To which they usually said "Uh, OK" and strolled on a little faster.  I have to say, the Celosia plants thought this was a great idea and they took off like gangbusters.  The other plants seemed to germinate OK and are growing but I think I need to wait a little longer to see if this technique is a complete success.

Hang in there, more to come!