Seeds and Figs and Seeds.....

All of seeds I ordered from SSE came this past week which was perfect timing. At the same time, the SSE yearbook and finally the scionwood for the 5 varieties of fig trees came. It is a bit overwhelming when you long for something garden-like in the middle of January and all of a sudden, in February, all preperation and planning hits the ground at a hundred miles an hour; seed germination, plot planning, new creations, longer to do lists, fixing things that broke last year, etc....
This year, I am going to try to bud 5 types of fig trees which is a relatively straight forward process. Damp paper towel, a zip lock bag and a warm place for about 3-4 weeks. The idea is to force root growth, with or without leaf growth. Once roots form, transplanting into a small pot for a few months and then outside by middle to late summer. I will post some picture on progress later in the month.

With March 17th being my start date for frost tolerant stuff, I needed to start seeds this week. I got all the components finally for the seed starting shelves. The last pieces were the chain to hang the lights and the shelving itself. I opted for a 6-shelf 72" x 48" x 18" chrome wire unit from Home Depot. Although I thought the 18" would be too narrow, once set up with 2 shop lights per shelf, it ended being the perfect size.

With so much emphasis on being eco-friendly in all of this, I seemed to have mis-lead myself in seeds starting. Working in the Sharing Garden with the Master Gardeners last weekend, we set cool crop seeds in plastic trays. When I asked Larry about being more earth conscious, his response surprised me, the plastic trays were over 7 years old because he re-uses them from year to year. I don't know why I never considered re-use but for seed plugs prior to transplanting into the potmaker pots, it give you great flexibility and control on planting patterns once they go in the garden. This was a problem for me last year....the throw-and-pray direct sowing method I used last year didn't do so well, things were overcrowded.

I ended buying (2) 72-cell seed starting trays for my cool crops. I am still trying to perfect things but I set the seeds on Wed. To keep them warn, I had to put them on top of my fish tank light By Thurs, I had 80% germination, Friday 90% germination and this morning, I would say 98% germination. Tomorrow AM, these seedlings go under the lights for 12-18 hours a day for about 2 weeks at which time I will transplant to potmaker pots.

Food Harvested:
None

Things Planted:
Oh Boy....7 type of lettuce being sprouted
Budding fig trees

Seeds Saved:
None

Preserved/Cooked:
Chocolate Cake

Things to Remember:
1. More narrow walkway in the garden this year
2. Remove the roses and put more garden there :)