Monday, May 28, 2012

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.



6 comments:

Becky Elmuccio said...

Looks like you are making good inroads to getting everything going. I can't wait to see how your sunflowers turn out.

Athena at Minerva's Garden said...

Your garden is looking wonderful. I am curious to see how your grafted tomatoes do--I've never tried them before, but have heard good things about them. I am hardening off the tomato, eggplant and pepper starts, and it's still pretty cool at night. They aren't objecting to being outside, but they would all like it to be much warmer!

Brenda Pruitt said...

I wish I could say it was cool here. Very hot and very humid. My plants look toasted by evening though I water in the morning.
Brenda

Unknown said...

Your plants look great. I love seeing how you use the very side of your house to put some veggies. I've never heard of grafted tomatoes...I'm curious.

I hoping next year to plant more flowers but our growing season for tender plants is about done as it's 90+ degrees and will only get hotter.

Unknown said...

Your plants look great. I love seeing how you use the very side of your house to put some veggies. I've never heard of grafted tomatoes...I'm curious.

I hoping next year to plant more flowers but our growing season for tender plants is about done as it's 90+ degrees and will only get hotter.

Anonymous said...

loved reading about your garden, and enjoyed reading your blog!
debbie