My plants were in a state.  They really needed to be potted up over a week ago, but with the impending move, they simply needed to wait until we were a little more settled.  We are settled, mostly.  Still a few boxes to unpack, and we have lots of things we want to do to make this home work best for us, but it’s in a functioning state, at least.

So.  The gardens themselves are in a state.  A serious state of need.  There is this vine thingy that has completely taken over every single garden bed.  It’s some kind of ground cover, and the roots go really deep.  As much as I’m loathe to use chemicals on the garden, it may very well be that Round-Up is going to be the way to go here.  Yesterday I spent over an hour patiently digging up just two square feet of garden. The great news is that the soil is wonderful.  It’s lush, dark, a little bit moist, and loaded with earthworms of all sizes.   I may be adding some bagged compost to bulk it up, but I feel confident that I could plant in it as is and reap a bountiful harvest.  Tomorrow if we have dry weather I plan to spend more time expanding my work area.  A little at a time, and then I can get some lettuce, spinach and swiss chard in the ground.

Then there are the peppers and tomatoes.  Today they needed to be put in larger pots, to allow their roots a place to expand.  I did as I did last year and used a fork to remove the tender baby plants from their cells and put them in larger cells.   A fork just works so well!  And when you have an instance where you have two plants in one cell, you can use the fork to remove them to a piece of newspaper, where you can then gently seperate them, without harming the roots.  It just works so well.  The peppers I am very happy with.  I’ve had a successful run of germination with them this year, and I have more than enough to share.

The tomatoes though, I had some disappointments.  I did plant too many seeds, so they really did me a favor by not sprouting at all.  Had we not been in the process of moving, I would have re-seeded the ones that didn’t sprout, but I think it’s too late for that now.  Oh well.  I will still have plenty to share with my brother, and it will be wonderful to get some from him to add as well.   I have 35 successful plants so far, and 8 of those are for Tomatobug.  That leaves me with a much more manageable number, with a few leftover yet for sharing.   I also have tomatillos growing, and the suckers from my doomed sungolds are blossoming too.

One thing I was struggling with was where to put my potlings.  I don’t have a good south facing window anymore, and it’s very clear that next year I will have to learn the art of seed starting by grow-light, but in the meantime, I have these baby plants who are starting to look a little leggy, and like they really want some sunshine.  It’s just not time for them to be outside yet.  I toyed with the idea of setting up my portable greenhouse and figuring out a way to hang the shoplights on there.  But then the inspiration struck.

I discovered that I have these flourescent lights under my kitchen cabinets.  With a baking rack underneath each flat of plants for height, I now have two grow stations in my kitchen.   That leaves me a few small pots without the light, but if I work it out right, I can rotate them in for a turn from time to time.  I think it’s just so cool that everything I really need is right here, ready and waiting for me.

Hopefully these lights will work out until I can start hardening them off.  And in the meantime, I have a lot to do in the yard to get ready for planting.  And boy, do I want to plant.