Today I'd like to show you the seedlings I've been growing and some of my new projects that are just about to start.
Progress Report
In my previous posts I've shown you how I planted seeds in order to grow seedlings. Today I'd like to show you where I'm at with these seedlings.
These are the dahlia seedlings, surprisingly big already. It's amazing to witness how the growing process differs from one plant to the other. All the seeds were planted 15 days ago and you'll see the difference.
These are the peppers. Planted in the same time as the others, compared to the dahlias, these look like hunger strikers. They are growing just fine, this is their pace, you can't rush them. They came out later, much later and maybe need more time. That's nature.
So far so good, all the pepper seeds are growing. This is a 100% success and pretty rare. I remember my dad struggling in some years to get seedlings and each year there's one or two category that doesn't grow, some need to be replanted and there are times when there's no time enough to try to grow new ones. In cases like that you go to the farmers market and buy seedlings. It looks like a convenient solution, the problem is you can't trust sellers 100%. There were times when they told you the seedlings are red pepper and you got yellow or green. When you have no other option, you have to trust them. This year it looks like we won't need them.
These are the running petunias. It's a bit of a shock if you compare them to the other seedlings. If you check my other posts, you can see how small seeds are. Let me post a photo here.
This is how it started, these were the seeds I've used. Small seeds, small seedlings. Now I know why running petunia seedlings cost around $1 each. These seedlings are so tiny and fragile at the moment that even watering them is a very difficult task. Water is heavy, could destroy them easily, that's why I must use tricks and pour water where there are no seedlings. They need to be monitored all the time and watered every time the soil is close to being dry.
Planting Pansy Seeds
Pansies are very resistant, perfect for the cemetery, when watering comes from nature most of the times. Pansies love sunny places and are maybe the most resistant flowers. Last year I bought ten pansy seedlings from the farmers market, planted on the grave and in one week all were stolen. Let me not say anything about the act as it speaks for itself. Whoever did it, doesn't deserve anything but punishment.
These are the pansies I bought last year.
This year I thought if my apartment is already looking like a greenhouse, why not grow the pansies myself. I have the seeds from last year, there's plenty of soil and cups, so why not.
These seeds are yellow and dark red, just like on the package.
This photo was taken last year in June, this is the pansy I grew from these seeds.
The fun thing about these pansy seeds is that they are glued to a paper tape to the exact distance that needs to be respected when planting them.
It's a smart solution that helped me last year but this year I am not planting them to their final place, so I need to improvise and cut the tape apart.
I'm using the recycled plastic cups I wrote about in my last post and just put one seed in each cup.
Also needed smaller cups and decided to make a few from a paper towel cardboard core.
I cut the core into three and voilà!
Ten pansy seeds in ten cups. Let's see when these are going to sprout. I should write the planting date on each cup (like my dad does) but I'm lazy and using my Steem posts to keep track of everything.
More pepper seeds planted yesterday.
As I said earlier, I've never had so many seedlings growing in my apartment but this is the only possible solution to get everything in time.
New Acquisitions
Today I went to the mall and also visited the gardening section, that is half the size of a football field. It's my favorite playground any time of the year, I just can't stay away as there are so many good things and even if I'm not buying anything, taking photos is a must. Today however I could not come home empty handed.
This is black currant. When I was a kid, my grandparents had a bunch of these and they always made jam, juice and wine. It's an excellent antioxidant, full of vitamin C, it's the best to boost your immune system. We grew up always having black currant juice. Then one year in February there were a few very warm days, currants started to bud and then came a cold, temperature dropped below zero and the currants did not survive. They had to cut out all the black currants and decided to plant grapes instead.
Today when I saw these I could not stay away. It took me 5 minutes to decide but I said I must buy one and I did. We still have a bunch of red and white that gives us plenty of fruit to make jam for all the family and for sale as well, but black is a whole different matter. There's still free space where the white and red are, so one black is going to be planted pretty soon, next weekend I believe.
These are the red ones, ready to be collected and eaten. Fresh, organic, healthy.
Flowers, what else!? :)) Yes, I could not come home without buying some flower seeds as I needed some for the balcony. This is the Convolvulus tricolor,aka dwarf morning-glory. It says it's a mix, so I'm expecting to see a bunch of colors, not only one. I chose this type as I've never had it and it's short, perfect for limited space.
Seeds have to be planted in April, so plenty of time till then.
This is it for today, I'll be back soon with a new report to show you where we're at.
Read my other gardening related posts:
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