Hellchick

So that greenhouse Len built is absolutely perfect. But I mentioned in the last entry that I was getting worried that my seedlings just didn't look right -- some of them (the cucumbers, squash, melons, and the tomatoes a tiny bit) are growing really tall with a couple of leaves at the top. This didn't look right to me.

Fortunately I found the wonderful website You Grow Girl, and their forums are a treasure trove of information. It turns out that my seedlings are growing like this because they're not getting enough light. So my one grow light (that I borrowed from a friend) is too high and also might not be enough light for them.

Whew. That's a fixable problem at least for next year's seedlings, and partially for this year's. Because the cukes, squash, and melons have grown this way, they may be a bit weak and may fail on me in the garden. Either fortunately or unfortunately, I'm technically supposed to start those plants directly in the garden. So if I have to, in a couple of weeks (after our last frost date) I'll just sow more seeds directly in the garden. Perhaps as a result of this mistake of mine, when I tried to harden off the squash plants to put them in this coming weekend, they all fell over. Whether this is from seed rot or because they got too tall and thus too weak to handle being hardened off is unknown.

So, Caryn's first major gardening mistake has been made. But it's only a small bump in the road -- Len and I are going to move the light down tonight so the rest of the seedlings don't grow this way.