Garden Update

Broccoli-De Cicco Seedling I transplanted (click on image for larger picture)

Today, I was busily transplanting some of my early spring veggie seedlings outside. The past couple of days, I've been slowly transitioning the seedlings outside slowly by giving them some time outside in the morning and bringing them inside at night. The time eventually becomes longer and longer each day until I feel comfortable that they're ready to stay outside day and night. This prevents shock (i.e. too much heat and too much cold) to the tiny fragile seedlings. I typically acclimate them a week before I'm ready to plant. A tip to transplanting seedlings is to have a bucket of compost in tow when you're ready. I dig a hole, throw some compost in the hole and plant my seedlings deeper in the soil line. The compost gives the seedlings some extra nutrients and the deeper hole allows water to settle in where I want it to go (i.e. directly to the roots) instead of evenly watering all the soil. Seedlings I planted include cabbage-early golden acres, broccoli-de cicco, radish-cherry belle, lettuce-bibb, iceberg, black-seeded simpson, brussel sprouts, and swiss chard.

Flower Seeds I planted the other day (click on image for larger picture)

I also planted some more flower seeds today. Here's just a few that I planted:

• Butterfly OrchidChinese Houses
• Chinese Lanterns
• Coleus
• Echinacea
• Hollyhock-burgandy
• Hollyhock-majorette mix
• Shoofly
• Zinnia-giant
• Zinnia-thumbellina
• Morning glory-crimson rambler

Free Shelving Unit (click on image for larger picture)

Over the weekend, I also found a shelving unit that was being thrown away and I decided to take it and recycle it in my garden as a seedling/supply unit. It reminds me of something you find at Ikea. A very modern shelving unit. I would have used it in our apartment but the color of the shelves (a light brown) would not match our apartment style which is dark mahogany wood. I'm not sure why the owner decided to throw it away but once I saw it by the dumpster, I had to pull over and pick it up. My husband laughed that I pulled over to pick up something because I normally wouldn't do it. Ahh...he doesn't know my great frugal gardening sense.

Also, there I have some germinating on some of the herb seeds, more specifically the thyme, oregano, and catmint I planted on February 2nd. It only took them 7-8 days to germinate. I was super excited to see the thyme and oregano work since those were the two herbs I really wanted to try. I'm also planning on start some basil seeds as well. I have the typical sweet basil and thai basil but I'm also going to try some new basil seeds I got this year. I bought some lemon basil seeds from grocoseeds and also a variety of seeds from a trade. She gave me so many varieties of basil. Some varieties include: Magical Michael, Holy Basil, East Indian Basil, and Osmin Basil.