Seed Sowing Saturday

I sowed De Cicco Broccoli & Rossa Di Trento Lettuce last week but had issues uploading the pics.  I'm going to be following the sowing schedule of Dave from The Home Garden & doing Seed Sowing Saturdays.  I like the schedule it puts me on since part of my issue last year was not having seeds sown at the right times and running out of summer growing season so my great plan fell apart.

These are the first Heirloom seeds I started to grow this year.  The reason I picked Rossa Di Trento Lettuce? It's from Italy!!  Also it sounded very fancy. The fact that its so pretty was a huge bonus.  I love a pretty salad!  Will let ya know how it tastes!   I only put 1 seed in each section hoping to not waste any seeds with having to thin them.  Every seed grew!

Look at my itty bitty 1 week old lettuce seedlings!!!

I love this seed sowing container!  I can grow 49 seedlings in it.  I bought 2 last year from Veseys and I'm going to need to buy another 2 this week.  I planted 49 lettuce last week & another 49 today in my 2nd container so I just need to sow 28 more and my spring lettuce plants are done. These containers enable me to grow solid seedling plugs without damaging the roots when I remove them like other containers I've tried.

The cover has spikey things on top and are used upside down to put a small dent in the soil so you have a place to put your seed.  Best part?? It's dishwasher safe!  I love it!  It's also self watering with corners made to easily add water.  It is easily the BEST container I've ever tried.

This is my first year growing Broccoli so I'm really looking forward to seeing how it comes out. I'm starting out small - 4 plants last week, will plant 4 more in a week and then 8 in the fall (possibly more if I swap out lettuce spots for extra broccoli plants).

Here are what my 1 week old broccoli seedlings look like. Aren't they so cute??

Today I sowed another 49 lettuce seeds but this time I used Grandpa Admire's.  I really liked this one because it's slow to bolt which is what I need in the heat of the summer.  It's also a butterhead so I'm thinking it's a great mix with the loose leaf lettuce I sowed last week.  WOW going to be a lotta lettuce!!

I put 1 seed in each spot again so hopefully they will germinate as well as the last batch.

Below are very sorry looking lettuce plants I've been trying to grow over the winter without lights in my kitchen window. Obviously, not very successfully.  I have them under lights now so hopefully they'll grow  (don't know why I didn't do it earlier then now!).

Here's my current set up. I have a metal shelf with a T5 high output light.  It has 2 different types of lights: 2 for growth and 2 for blooming.  I've ordered 2 growth bulbs to replace the blooming ones since I'm interested in good strong seedlings.  I have another light set that will be here hopefully by Monday so will be able to put like-heighted seedlings together to help with light intensity.  That will give me 2 shelves worth of room.  Over the summer I'm going to have to seriously consider what I'm going to do so I can grow veggies over the winter.

I want to send out a huge THANK YOU to Lynda from Cortina Creek Farms for sending me celery seeds.  This will be my first time growing celery and I'm very excited!  I will be saving my own seeds this year too and will be sending some your way!!

Happy Sowing Everyone!!!

GREEN!!

I remember what green looks like! There is a patch of grass in my front yard that is peaking through the mounds of snow.  It's screaming SPRING!!!  I can feel it! It's coming!! :)  Now, if they would stop talking about snow storms so we can get on with it already! :)

Blessings!

It's rainbows and lollipops in my world!

I think I have finally found a way to totally embarrass not only my children (and their friends) but my fiance and he is not an easy person to embarrass.  I have been watching all these movies about how our meat is processed, how the animals are treated, about Monsanto, and I look at all the food labels and OMG corn syrup or corn in any form really is in almost anything you buy. It's amazing!

Anyway, I haven't really been cooking dinner because the thought of looking at meat and then wondering how the animal was treated (or really, how poorly it had been treated), and then wondering what crap was put into it during the processing (did poop rub off from one carass onto the one I'm eating?!?).  I blame it on trauma. That's my only excuse. As we're sitting in the diner, I open the menu, and it's everywhere MEAT MEAT MEAT

OMG, I'd be a vegan if I actually liked a broad selection of veggies (which I don't).

So since I eat at this establishment often I figured I might as well get this out of the way. But when the waitress asked what I was going to have, I went to ask a question, but then I stopped. Then I remembered something my fiance has been telling me for the last 6 years or so that I've known him: Don't worry about what others think about you.  So really it's his fault this happened in the first place.  How could he instill this confidence to step forward if there were rules??

So I didn't worry about what my son and his girlfriend would think about me, nor did I think it would embarrass my fiance, and as for the waitress, well, surely I can't be the FIRST person to ask the question: "The meat you serve in the hamburgers... Is it real?? Is there any "stuff" added to it?"

Yup... I asked it and I thought my sons eyes were going to pop out of his head! My fiance was good, he just shook his head and looked at him and listened as the waitress said "Of course it's real. Absolutely." Ok, that solved that issue. So I ordered a burger. :)

Now I wasn't expecting the barrage of comments from my loving family once the waitress escaped from my presence.  "Mom if you EVER do that again I swear I'm not eating out with you again!"  I was must have looked like my middle sons face did when he would play soccer.  He'd be running for the ball full force,  push the kid who had possession out of the way, gain possession and when the ref blew the whistle for the penalty he held his arms up, his halo shining so brightly in the afternoon sun and said "What?! I didn't do anything!"

Needless to say, I looked lovingly at my fiance and said "This is all YOUR fault" (can you see MY halo???)

Than came the reality of it all: "Sweetheart, you do realize that she probably doesn't have a clue what kind of meat they use?"  Why is someone always trying to burst my bubble, rain on my parade, chew the lollipop instead of seeing how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center?  Everything is so nice and rosy in my world.  :)  I think that's why a part of my brain has blocked off my ability to care if she was lying or if she was just guessing.  After all, unless you see these movies, how can you know?  Tell me something I want to believe, and I'll believe it.  I wanted that hamburger!

It was a great burger (even if it may have had poop and corn in it...) and now I have to research this meat & monsanto stuff on the sly as I've pretty much been banned from watching anymore movies :)

One last thought - Can someone please come haul all this snow away? I'm really getting tired of not even being able to see the wood of my raised beds. Will post more later about my seed sowing.

Blessings! :)