Seeds!

We started planting for the vegetable/herb garden today.  It was bitwise's first excursion into starting seeds, which was probably more exciting for me than for him.  (When I first tried this I had a lot of anxiety about doing everything right; now I feel calmly confident that if I use care and sense, the seedlings will do what they need to do.  Not every one will thrive, but most probably will, and I'll certainly learn something either way.)

I used Mum's supplies from previous years, including an absolutely wonderful seed starter mix made from worm poop and horsehair, and three heated incubation trays with a total of 200 slots.  Of the 48 (not a typo) varieties we've decided to plant from seed, 27 are appropriate for starting indoors - leaving me with an irrational (practically if not mathematically) number of slots per variety.  So I rounded up to 8 and planted fewer of each pepper variety, since I have 5 of them.

Of course I then complicated matters by double-planting thyme.  That pushed the catnip out to a separate tray that will just have to live in a south window rather than under the light in the basement.  Not a big deal, and for the first time in recent memory I'll be able to say I have plenty of thyme.

I'm using a fixture with a high-pressure sodium lamp, which must have burned out fairly recently (I sometimes keep houseplants under it in the winter.)  I was delighted to find that a replacement cost $19 instead of the $75 or more that similar lamps sometimes run.  Unfortunately my friendly neighborhood indoor gardening store has moved to somebody's else's neighborhood; fortunately they're open 'til 7 and are still friendly.

Now the waiting.  I'm so eager to see tiny little sprouts peeking out of the soil!

( Here's everything that will be in the garden this year. )