I like to hover.

So nothing got transplanted or repotted or sown today, so I had time to just walk around and look at everything and take pictures of teeny tiny first leaves!

While I was looking over the lime tree I found two of these- I don't know what they are, even after intense googling.  Leaves were promptly ripped off and flung outside.

Look how big this purple jalapeno is!  I need to get the small solo cups ASAP!

Snapdragon jungle!

Go chives, go!!

Intense googling on this too...no answer.  Just a curvy leave on a Santa Fe pepper. Neat!

Pansy's first true leaf!

First true leaves on brain flowers coming in!

Komachi's looking swell!

Primrose getting a first true leaf!

Tiny first leaves on the spearmint!

Grow bags ordered!  This weekend is supposed to be beautiful, so hopefully I can do some wedding and take pictures of where everything is supposed to go!  Need to hit Lowes for some gravel, sand, dirt, and maybe anything else that piques my interest!

Never a dull moment!

Well, this isn't incredibly exciting, but- I brought the rosemary plant inside middle of January to avoid the deep frost that week- not really thinking about it being "evergreen" and all.  So it chilled in my 72* house for a couple weeks before I decided it was time to set it back outside....in the 40* average degree weather.  Obviously, it seemed pretty angry about the switcheroo I was trying to pull.  So the new growth slumped over and the leaves turned brown a little.  I pulled it back inside. It's been about a week or two and the leaves are starting to return to their normal green. There's still brown on most of the leaves, but lots of new growth, so I feel good about that.

Anyways...yesterday Hula decides to flip the entire pot.  Seriously, cats+gardening=disaster a lot of times.  I need to get better about taking pictures before I clean.  Luckily the plant didn't suffer any damage and it gave me an excuse to put some new dirt in the pot and give it a good fish emulsioning.

Here the pot is almost empty...check out all that beautiful bright green growth.  I swear, this rosemary plant is spoiled rotten.  An evergreen refusing winter  ::sigh::.

All better!

In other gardening news, I have my cart loaded with some new things to try.  I say loaded very loosely- two things. Right now I'm looking at the Garlic Grow Bag and the Carrot Grow Bag at Gardener's Supply Company.  I love this idea- especially since I could use the garlic bag for a while for radishes and then when it's time to do garlic this fall, just load it up (since radishes will long be done).  I think I'll place the order today- worth a try, right?  I thought about doing potatoes, but I don't know if I want to this year- I haven't really had time to evaluate my space outdoors yet and the clock is ticking for potatoes.  Anytime it's been somewhat warm enough to be outside (i.e. over 45*), I've been weeding the flower beds.  You never know, though, I've been known to walk into Lowes and change my mind instantly!

My Sweet Petunia

Well, my exciting pepper and tomato excursions weren't the end of my gardening day yesterday.  I went out to get the mail at about 3 o'clock and my seeds came! So my little helpers (one of mine and one of the preschool crew) came to my assistance. The dianthus is direct sow after last frost, so we were just going to do a few petunias.  We decided we were going to do these a little different since I don't have room to crack out a 36 cell greenhouse for 3 plants.  So...we're going to germinate these in the pot-up cups inside the little greenhouse.  Will it work? We'll see!  I love a good experiment.

Zack (my son) decided he wanted to take pictures so here I am measuring out the soil, moistening it and putting it in the pots.

Here are the boys putting the TEENY TINY seeds in the pots.  They are "barely press down"s, so I just pressed down on the soil a tiny bit all over and figured I covered our bases.

And here they are all snug under the light. Along with the rest of the forest.

It's Always Something

Just as I'm telling a friend that gardening can be the most frustrating thing on the planet....and that I was thisclose to heaving my limetree off the deck this weekend....or arm-sweeping my grow-table last week....I get a whole new crop of frustration to deal with.

I check on my peppers and find this- not one, but TWO types of mold.

So I went to work and changed the soil to those 7 pepper plants....switched the snapdragons to the back (since they were so tall and obviously blocking the air circulation) and peppers to the front end of the table by the fan.  I also tilted the light lower to the peppers. Now it's at a wicked angle, but closer to all of the peppers and still about two inches off the snapdragons.  On a more positive note, look how beautiful they all look!

Then, as the preschool crew and I were discussing different types of singing, Hula comes running in with something in her mouth.  A plant.  More specifically- a perfectly uprooted Spoon tomato.  I put it back in the soil, but as I was doing so I noticed that ALL of the leaves had curled up on both spoon plants on one had some wilt on the leaf.  I took them both and tossed them.  I think there is something wrong with the seeds. The plants weren't giving me a good feeling and their growth was just confirming my suspicions that they weren't going to be healthy. The last thing I wanted was them spreading something to any of the other tomatoes.  After panicking about a couple of other plants, Gail calmed my nerves and nothing else hit the trashcan. 

Here's hoping this season holds more rewards than frustrations!

Burying the stems

So my tomato plants are growing pretty fast.  Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to find small solo cups yet- and I sure as heck wasn't putting them in the 18oz cups yet, so I consulted my gardening mentor, Gail, with an idea.  Can I essentially "repot" in the same pot and just bury the stem?  The answer...yes. Just make sure you cut off the cotyledon. WORD.

Big ol' mess.

I need to point out how awesome this picture is....I had to have the scissors in my right hand, camera in my left and just blindly go for the leaves.  No tomato plants were harmed in the making of this photo.

All nice and neat once again!  Now to get the solo cups.

Just an update on limetree....so far so good!

A-ha!

So earlier today I transplanted the snapdragons to 18oz solo cups.  They needed it, badly.  But I'll get to that.

First- I want to talk about what I did first thing this afternoon....potted down the limetree. I know, I know, sounds crazy, no?  But, the fact is- I was having moisture problems.  All the sudden, I saw them. The fungus gnats. I had just scraped off some white mold from the edges of the pot the other day and now this.  Why was I having so many problems? Finally, it dawned on me. Thinking back to when I changed the soil in the pot the first time, I remembered how small the rootball was.  The problem wasn't the amount I was watering, or the air circulation or any of that.  The root (hehe) of the problem was the fact there was so much dirt around the plant that the roots couldn't feasibly suck up the water when I gave it a watering.  Water was just sitting around the plant. Thus, white mold, thus fungus gnats.  So...I potted down.  I took the limetree out, rinsed off the rootball as completely as I could, and replaced all the soil with brand new organic potting soil.  A much better fit for the rootball size.  I had intended on taking a bunch of sweet pictures while doing this....but found it already in the pot with new dirt by the time I remembered the camera sitting next to me.  So here's lime tree in its new pot. The gardening lesson to take away from this is: when it comes to indoor plants, bigger pot is not always better.

Okay, onto the snapdragons.  So, being a slightly irresponsible gardener at times...I was hoping I wouldn't have to transplant these.  But, as you can imagine, they outgrew their pots. And how.  So I pulled out the solo cups.  I wish I had had ones that were a teensy bit smaller, but the snaps will be happy. Kile bought me an awl for my birthday to poke holes in my cups, so it was a breeze this time!

I even thought logically about it and poked them from inside out....thus creating little plastic "stands" to keep the cup from rest down on the plastic! (Using plastic dropcloth to cover the table).

Here is the jungle of snapdragons.  They are a dwarf variety...but at 6 weeks old, they aren't looking very dwarf.

Poor babies.  Next year, I'll pot you up sooner.  I didn't realize they'd get so big so fast!

Zack helping me out.  A gardener in the making.  Arielle came and helped too...but it was after both my hands were covered in dirt, so no pictures.

Some of the colors on the underside of the leaves!  I'm excited to see what colors I've ended up with!

The spot on the table!  

All potted up...and not looking like they'll fit in that spot.  Sure enough, not really.  I made it work though.  Looks like I'll be rotating frequently. Whoopsy!

Steady like a surgeon...

So I've been waiting for everything to come up in the greenhouses and almost everything did.  Except some of the spinach and a couple pansies, but that's okay.  So...in an effort to get everything truckin'....I got to potting up.

Do I dare?! The true test of the steadiness of my hands.  Itty bitty plants.

Everything before the potting up.

Success!!  And with the help of the lovely miniature watering can that my gardening friend, Cherye, gave me for my birthday, I was able to safely water all the itty bitty plants. No fish emulsion- they seem too tiny for fertilizer.

Here they are! All snug in their new homes.  Now we wait. And hope.

And here is everything! And a tiny space there on the front left for the seeds on their way from Burpee! Oh, and side-note.  I had already forgotten from last year, but my repeat experience reminded me.  Those pellets with the mesh (apparently it can be the plant's forever home, you just put it in the ground as is, blah blah)- I hate them.  I ripped the mesh off and broke apart the dirt only to remember just how hard they pack that dirt in there.  Seriously, there were barely any roots on any of the plants! Never again.