Progress with my seedlings

It has been so lovely the past few days, mid 60’s for a high so time in my greenhouse has been glorious.  I have so many seedlings out growing their community pots I must pot some up each day.  I am using 3.5 to 4 inch pots and my compost mix to plant them up in.  I use 4 parts compost, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part perlite and 1 part sand. I have run out of the vermiculite so I have substituted more perlite until I restock.  The greenhouse still gets a bit too cold at night as the roof panels still need to be put back into place from the last snow storm that had them buckling. The gaps in the roof allow the warm air to escape.

Our temps have been dropping into the 30’s some nights.  Most of the seedlings will do fine as they don’t mind some cold but not my tomatoes.  I have been moving them in and out morning and night which is rather a pain but I am hoping for some warmer nights soon and the snow is melting fast so we will be able to access the panels to fix them, which will keep the heat in more efficiently. 
Early Girl tomatoes. 

I rather over did the Brandywine, I have over 30 seedlings but I will have a plant sale towards planting time which is late May so no waste.  I also have the fabulous sauce tomato called Costuluto Genovese, it makes the richest marinara I have ever made. And I have the best oven roasted marinara recipe that is so easy.  This is one of 3 tubs of seedlings! 

Remember my Delphiniums, here are the seedlings I started a couple weeks ago, I have another batch going.  I will have A LOT of English Delphiniums started.  I will sell some off when they get bigger along with other specialty plants I grow from seed that you cannot get from the garden centers. 

Some of the tomatoes potted up, they are still in a bit of shock in this shot but I have gone out and checked on them again and they are already perking up. 

Between potting up chores I have been painting.  I had a special order come in and I painted it up for the customer. 
They wanted the lettering to be dark blue, though it looks black in the photo.

While I was painting I whipped up a couple vintage looking signs as well.

I need to do a bunch of seafood or beach signs, my stock is low on my website.


And I finally decided on what I wanted to put on that Flowers sign…I added some faded red flowers. 

This will go up on the website as well. 
Seems we are to be hit with another winter storm, only for one day but anymore snow right now is annoying.  It gets in my way.  I have some big furniture building and painting plans along with some studio revamping and I can’t really get to it until it stays nice and the snow is melted.  Sigh!
May your days be sunny and bright!

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Keeping Sane on a Snowy Saturday!

Good Morning all… another day of snow..I hear thru the grapevine we have gotten a total of 17 feet this winter.  Right now we have a good 5 feet on the ground and it is coming down fast and furious.  That’s okay, I have indoor activities planned.  I have my own little spring going in the spare room upstairs. I have been starting more seeds.  You may have read my Delphiniums pre-germination post.  Click on the photo to go there…

Dowdeswells of New Zealand, where I buy my English Delphinium seeds, somehow spotted it and asked to link to it.  I was surprised and flattered.  Of course I gave my okay.  They do sell spectacular seeds as some I started were a good 4 years old, kept in my fridge but still a good portion sprouted.  I bought fresh seeds this year as I do love the English Delphs in my garden and I want more colors. Delphiniums are not the only thing I have sprouting on my fancy dancy garden rack…

I intend to put another light on the third shelf, I have more starts than space under the lighted shelves now.  The seeds have been popping up in droves.  This year I found seeds of flowers I cannot get in garden centers or nurseries, most of them anyways.  I wanted to attract beneficial insects as well so I focused on the plants that draw them in. Like Catchfly
My seedlings.
And also I searched for flower seeds for their scent…Heliotrope is a sweet old fashioned charmer..I hear it smells reminiscent of vanilla.  I have a batch of these started too. 

I have my High Scent sweet peas, there is no other that can perfume a room with just one vine.  They are a soft white with lavender edging, I plant them along the front porch rail and they are glorious to just walk past.  I wish I could find my photo of them…I will keep looking.
Other seeds I have going are Butterfly Weed, Virginia Stock (another heavily scented one), Blue Pimpernel, Zulu Prince Daisy, Pow Wow Echinacea, Butterfly Delphiniums (another fabulous blue), and some Russell Lupines.  All of these are easy to start and tough as nails once they are established. 
I did not forget the heirloom veggies..I got carried away and have 30 Brandywine tomato starts..

I set up a fan to gently blow on the seedlings, this helps them to grow sturdier, the movement helps them secrete an enzyme that makes them tougher, more stocky instead of leggy.

The other veggie plants I have started are basil, baby broccoli, Camp Joy cherry tomato, and some jalapeno peppers.  I am waiting for my Zavory Habanero seeds, they are not hot, but you have all the Habanero flavor, which I love! 
So now you have the low down on my indoor Spring time.  I will pot up more seeds today and get them going on the heat mats.  Add another grow light to my rack and organize it a bit better.  Bring in my seaweed spray and give all the seedlings a spritz and move on to my other project which includes this…
And these…

That is for my next post…happy snowy Saturday!  Enjoy!