Hellchick

I drive by two or three gardens on my long drive into work each day. And when I do I always check them out during the season to see what they're doing, since I know the gardens have been there for a while. So when my own experiences don't line up to what I see in other people's gardens I worry. But then I remember that I'm new to this, and these people have established gardens that are going to grow things faster.

At any rate, I'm just happy to see some seeds sprouting. I don't know why I'm paranoid about seeds sprouting -- I sort of assume nothing is ever going to come up. With transplants you can at least see something there. With seeds, I sometimes wonder if the birds got them and I'm staring at an empty patch of dirt.

The rest of my future transplants continue to do well in the greenhouse now that we lowered the light. I was worried about the bell peppers at first; after a day with the light lowered they looked a little piqued, but after some water yesterday I checked on them this morning and they look plump and healthy. The tomatoes look good, too. I was worried that I was going to have to buy some transplants to replace these guys because of my light faux pas, but they seem to be doing okay.

Things I have learned this week:

- Always bottom water. I should have known this but I didn't until this week.

- Keep your grow light about three inches from the plants to keep from getting spindly, leggy plants.

- Start seeds earlier than you did this year. I couldn't do it on time this year because we had to build the greenhouse and that took time, so I think my plants are lagging behind a bit. But not by much, so I think I'll still get some good plants and veggies.

- Be patient when it's called for. When it says to sow seeds outdoors after frost...just do that. Don't be too eager to start the squash, melons, and cukes before you need to.

I'm planning to start my potatoes today as well as my heirloom Grandpa Ott's morning glories. This is exciting for me because it'll be the first plant that I've ever started using seeds I saved myself from last year's plants. The potatoes are going to be fun because I'm growing them in a bucket. I found multiple forum posts and web sites that say you can easily grow them in barrels by just piling more dirt on top of them as they grow. In fact, here are some great links I found this week:

- Growing barrels of potatoes

- Making recycled seed pots from newspaper

- Making self-watering pots from two liter soda bottles

Lots of good information!