I slept in this morning!! YAY! The downside is that I woke up with a screaming headache that is just holding on for all its worth. I, of course, am applying coffee to the headache. I could walk over to my daughter’s fifth wheel and use the headache oil blend she has, but I don’t want to wake her. If the coffee doesn’t help, I guess I’m just going to have to do that.
I can’t get this year’s garden out of my head. It doesn’t help that the stores are putting out gardening stuff, now. Ok. In a way, that actually helps. I have purchased organic starting soil, six natural fiber 36 cell planting flats, and seeds. I also picked up a mini, galvanized pot that came with starting soil and basil seeds about a week ago.
Yesterday, I started filling the planting flats. I did one 36 cell flat all in catnip, using seeds from my last catnip harvest back in August of 2013. Because of the age of the seeds, I am not sure they will sprout. I am hoping so. I guess I will know somewhere between a week and 20 days from now. If they don’t germinate, I will just have to buy some seeds and start over with them, though I really like the idea of the seeds coming from one of my plants.
After I finished the catnip flat, I filled another flat with half rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) and the other half lavender lady (Lavandula angustifolia). I started this a little late in the day and it was starting to get dark, so I fill half of the third flat with munstead lavender (oddly enough, also Lavandula angustifolia) and called it a day. I moved the flats I had filled into my daughter’s fifth wheel since she has room for them and she agreed to let me get my seeds started in there.
I have the little galvanized pot with the basil in it sitting behind my sink. I’ve been checking the soil every evening and dribbling some water on it to keep it moist. Last night, I went to dribble some water on it and saw these little dots in it. I’ll admit my first thought was “What the heck is that in my basil!?” This is what I saw:
my basil sprouts
I have basil sprouts already!!! It’s amazing how happy that makes me. I was completely surprised. When I bought the basil kit, I didn’t really have a lot of faith in it actually growing. I haven’t had much success with seeds that come in a planting kit in the past, but it was cheap ($3) so I decided to give it a try. If nothing else, I had this little pot to use in other ways. The fact that I have sprouts in just a week’s time makes it even more exciting for me. It really is amazing how happy these little sprouts make me.
I have four more seed packets to get started: Mammoth Dill (anethum graveolens), Roma tomatoes (Tomate Roma), a hot pepper blend (pimiento picante hot blend), and Mammoth sunflower (Girasol mammoth). I want to pick up another type of sunflower because I plan on putting the Mammoth ones ( they get to be around 12 feet tall) along the fence line and think it would be really pretty to put a smaller (maybe around 5-6 feet), different colored one between the Mammoth ones. I can see it in my head and it makes me smile.
I also want to pick up some more veggies. I’m not sure which ones, though. I also want to pick up some lemon balm, borage, fennel, maybe some garlic, try my hand at bergamot herb, possibly some feverfew…this list could get long. There are so many things I have never tried to grow before and that almost guarantees it is on my list of ones I want to try.
I know Dahlias and strawberries are on the list for this year. My daughter has mentioned Dahlias the last couple of years, and mentioned it again when we were picking up more planting flats, so we are going to do those. Strawberries are part of a really nice childhood memory and I honestly am surprised I haven’t grown them, yet. My daughter pointed out the strawberry roots for sale and I decided right then and there this would be the year for those, as well.
I know how busy summer is for me and I hope I am not setting myself up to fail with my garden. It is going to be quite large. Just filling the planting flats I have, if every cell produces one plant, that is 216 plants. Maybe I’ll have to sell or give away some of the starts since my list of ‘want to grow’ plants is pretty long. What can I say? Growing things, plants, herbs, kind of makes me manic, in a good way. 😉
Dragonfly Gypsy USA 