True Leaves

Today I came home to find itty bitty true leaves on the tomato seedlings!

Seedlings!

I finally got around to starting seeds a couple weeks ago, on Feb 16th to be exact.  I planted tomatoes, basil, cilantro, hot peppers, bell peppers and parsley.  Thus far everything has come up except those pesky bell peppers.  The seed was a couple years old so maybe it is bad.  Anyway, on to the exciting part- the picture!

In the left column the only thing that came up was one cilantro.  There was another cilantro and chives planted in the other two.  Next column has three basils- they are so cute and already starting on their first true leaves!  Next column has parsley at the top (it hadn't come up as of the picture but its up now) and two marzano tomatoes.  Finally, two tomatoes- one still trapped in its seed coat- and an empty spot (the hot pepper peat pellet has now been transplanted there).

I am trying something new this year, starting the seeds in the peat pellets and then transferring them to the bigger 6-pack when they sprout.  I find the 6-packs much easier to work with, but the seeds sprout much easier in the pellets. We shall see how it goes.

I just love having these little bits of green in the apartment- especially on days like today when it is rainy and dreary out.  I just sit and stare at them, marveling at the miracle of a sprouted seed.

More sprouts

One ocra and a lot of the black beans came up today!  I think I will be able to pick my first harvest of peas this weekend!

Swiss Chard

Today my Bright lights Swiss chard came up! I originally planted it directly outside but it never came up. Apparently each seed is actually more than one seed stuck together- check this out:

Theres like 4 plants coming out of there!  I love that the colors are already visible.  I have no idea whether or not I even like chard, I just bought it because its so pretty!

Almost planting time!

I have been hardening off some of my seedlings for the last couple of days.  Most of the tomatoes, peppers and marigolds are big enough to go outside and I am so excited.  Sunday afternoon we set up the tomato trellis. It looks nice, but will look even better with lots of tomato plants growing up it! :)  I am using the 'string' method as described here.  Last year I used cages and the plants outgrew them about halfway through the season so I am hoping that going up will work better.  I am only growing one type of tomato: Roma.  I will probably get 1 or two more from picnic day too, but for now thats all.  For the peppers I have several different kinds: CA wonder (red bell), orange sweet bell, purple beauty and cayenne hot.  I was never able to get the purple to sprout so I just went out and bought a plant at Ace.  I am thinking that next year I might just buy all my plants.  For all the effort it takes to start seeds it might be worth it to spend the extra, at least for things like tomatoes and peppers that you transplant anyway.

Seedlings are growing!

Seedlings!

I have started seeds indoors!

So far I have peppers (orange and red), one tomato, marigolds, garlic chives and basil seedlings. Still waiting on the rest of the tomatoes, purple and hot peppers, poppies and calendula to come up. My system is kinda ghetto. I have Spongebob paper cups with dirt under two desklamps. Overall it seems to work pretty well. Two things for next year: 1. garden soil and potting soil are not the same- get the potting soil. 2. Paper cups rot- get plastic. This may not be a problem if I get sterile potting soil though. Anyway, here are the pics: