Seed Starting & Transplanting

Today was overcast and cool until almost 5:30 PM when the sun finally made a brief appearance. I started my gardening day by transplanting the four grafted tomatoes that I had purchased two weeks ago at the Oregon Plant Fair. I was happy to see that the tomato plants were still in a good condition after being tucked away and neglected in the greenhouse for that long.

I brought in some fresh Natures Best soil and top dressed and leveled the area where I wanted to plant them. And in they went, surrounded by the first tier of my Gardener's Supply tomato cages. It is still so cool out that I know they are just going to sit there for a few more weeks, refusing to grow, until we finally start to see some warmer weather. I think that I will wait until mid-June to buy my last few tomatoes for the garden.

After getting the tomatoes planted I turned my attention to seed starting. I am so late on this task. I should have done this a good 2-3 weeks ago but I can't go back in time. I have decided to buy my Squash starts at the Farmer's Market since I am so late but everything else was started today. I began by planting this large 9-cell tray with the Sunflower "Giant Primrose" from Seed Savers Exchange.

I found these inexpensive, bio-degradable 10-cell packs at Down to Earth. What I didn't realize, when I purchased them, was how perfectly they would all fit into one plastic nursery tray. I planted one unit with "Russian Pickling" cucumber from Seed Savers Exchange, one unit with "Ring of Fire" Sunflower from Seed Savers Exchange, 2 units with "Frances' Choice" Marigold from Seeds of Change, and the last unit with "Red Metamorph" Marigold from Seeds of Change.

Here's a close up of the "Russian Pickling" seeds before they were covered.

I also planted another tray with flower seeds. I planted four 6-cell units with "Blue Point Bouquet" Zinnia from Renee's Garden. Then I planted one 6-cell unit each of "Red Gem", "Tangerine Gem" and "Lemon Gem" Signet Marigolds from Johnny's Selected Seeds.

After finishing up with the seed starting, I was please to discover that I now have five dahlias up. Pictured below, an emerging "Kathy's Choice" , a Miniature Yellow Cactus form.