If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Can It Really Almost Be Spring?



Hello and welcome to Sunday.

Yet another day to spend mourning the loss of a perfectly good weekend in which you achieved nothing.  Also, a day to spend dreading the fact that you must return to work in…currently 21 hours.
Nah, Not really.  Sundays are OK with me.   Sundays are good for blogging.

So what’s new this week?

Friday night I took my daughter out to dinner.  We enjoyed some fabulous Chinese cuisine and talked a lot about her new job, which involves coffee and the various ways to serve it.  After that, we visited momma at her night job at the big home improvement store.  You know the one you can walk around in aimlessly for hours, all the while racking up ideas in your head for projects you know you’ll never have the time for, let alone the money to undertake?

Yeah, that one. 

In the short time I was there my imaginative process soared and had I of followed it, I may have spent upwards of $234,567.  Dangerous places they be.

I did find one thing, well maybe a couple things, which I just had to have.  One was a new indoor greenhouse.  If you remember (I know you won’t so here is the LINK) every year I build my own seed starting greenhouse.  This year I decided to skip that step and purchase one of the portable ones and save myself the grief of building and then deconstructing one.  This way really is easy and more convenient.



I picked up a few seed packets as well.  An assortment of tomatoes, sweet peppers, and hot peppers.  These are the ones I start first and then I will follow up with other, fast-growing vegetables, in a few weeks.
This new greenhouse has 4 levels and I only had enough grow lights for 2 so I picked up 2 more lights to add to it.  Today I will plant the seeds in my plastic flats that I re-use every year.  In eight or nine weeks, they will go in the garden and I will be perched in a lawn chair, soaking up sunshine and drinking a cold beer.

I have some extra work to do in the garden this year.  It is time for a crop rotation.  I need to move some of the planting boxes, re-route the irrigation lines and swap the corn and pumpkin patch.  It’s not good to plant the same veg in the same spots year after year.  They deplete the soil of the nutrients that each plant needs.  Rotating crops and adding compost assures that each plant never lacks the appropriate needs for excellent growth.

Last year the weather changed so quickly that I didn’t have time to clean up the garden before winter set in so I have to get this done as well.

So what do you plan on doing today?

Have you started your seeds yet?

10 comments:

  1. That's a cool thing for the seed starting. No gardening here for a variety of reasons :) I had heard that about crop rotation, makes sense to do so. Should be about 72 degrees here today; not sure what we 'll do this afternoon, church in the morning, maybe a drive in the afternoon. Always nice to have a day to kick back and rest before heading back to work tomorrow :)

    betty

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  2. Today, I was woken by a text, and a cool picture of rocks… so, once up I put on the coffee and snuggled back under the covers while listening to an audio book. I checked my blog, tweeted a bit, and then decided it was time to get my tush in gear. Laundry is whirling below me and I'm going to tackle my tax papers. Their mostly done, but since I run a business there's always extra stuff that I need to do for my accountant. Oh yay!

    Funny thing about bookwork of any kind, I dread it until I'm doing it… then I really enjoy the organizing, filing, tallying, etc. that goes with it. I'm a closet bookkeeper. hahaha

    I leave the gardening to you, I enjoy your posts and pictures you share out here. One of these days I'll dig up the back of my yard and then wonder what to do! LOL I will grow tomatoes again, but I buy the plant that's already underway.

    It's a wet, dreary day, so it's all about staying inside - good day for papers.

    How's that book coming along, Oma says "chop chop"…. hahahaha

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    1. Typo alert… there, their, they're…
      They're mostly done…, my papers that is! LOL

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    2. The book has been put on temporary re-assignment while I recover from my cold and the change in weather. A couple warm days and my thoughts stray so far from writing its hard to stay in the house.

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    3. Weird… I had to add my comment down below, because when I clicked on Reply it wouldn't work… monsters in the comment area… yikes!

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  3. I have already started my seeds. Like a pot grower (minus the actual pot) I start them off in indoor grow tents where I've hung LED lights. The LEDs are incredibly energy efficient (hardly notice a ding on my power bill) and the tents are lined with reflective material so the light rays bounce off evenly for stronger light force and even penetration.

    It's gonna be a good year for plants! I love that greenhouse you've got. I think I've seen that same one before, and contemplated getting one, but... ultimately, I like my year round set up.

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    Replies
    1. I would like to see that. I often thought of checking all the grow shops out but felt kinda weird going in, not being a pot head and all.

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  4. I'm reading this a day late so I went to the beach today. It was the most perfect Florida day in March. Low 70's and NO HUMIDITY! I'm glad you had a good time with your daughter and got your greenhouse and seeds going. Won't be long now.

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  5. No worries, Oma will just have to wait. Seeds and garden have major time commitments to them. I know you'll be writing when the time and mood moves you. Until then, get over that cold, and happy seeding! Cheers, JP

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  6. Last year we purchased a six shelf wire storage rack and hung daylight florescent tubes above four of the shelves. They are on chains so they can be raised or lowered depending on the seedling height. I currently have eight flats of seedlings in various stages of sprouting under the lights which are on a timer. My daughter (who planted all those seeds) comes by every day to water them. Once they are ready to plant, she will do that for me too. It is as close to an automated system as I have found. :D Cheers! tm

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