Right about this time of year, I am ready to start planting things. Generally the weather tantalizes me with a few nice days and then returns to winter grey and cold. When that happened this year I decided to do something about it.
A quick trip to Home Depot with the little boys while the big children were at yoga class yielded four windowsill sized greenhouses.
These things are so cool- just add water and watch the pellets swell! The children were fascinated.
The big children planted one tray with garden peas.
Bull and I planted another one with snow peas.
As you can see this is a great fine motor skills exercise. Each peat pellet gets only one pea seed.
I planted the other two greenhouses with lettuce, spinach and kale. The greens were up within a couple of days and the pea seedlings will probably be ready to plant out at the end of this week! Once they’re out I’ll wash down the greenhouses with vinegar, add more peat pellets and start my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and squashes!
Just thinking about it makes me feel like summer is around the corner!
Man… You’re brilliant. Why on earth didn’t I think of that?? Now it’s probably safe to direct-sow out here, so should stop sniveling and get OUT there!
Hope and I were out soaking up the sun a little while ago. It’s so delicious! 🙂
Desperation, m’dear, desperation!..K
I’m excited to start my garden this year. Last year, it was eaten alive by a Mama Groundhog and her 6 (6!) babies. This year I’ve decided on evasive action – hanging planters for my lettuce, kale, etc!! Hopefully we’ll actually get to reap what we sow this year.
Oh I have done the groundhog wars! Beautiful broccoli that was there in the morning and gone by nightfall. The only thing that I know works for sure is electric fencing! Containers out of groundhog reach are a good idea though- I’ll be giving away a copy of my book on container gardening in the next week or so…K