March 1, 2011

First off, sorry for my absence this last week. I had a bit of a computer panic to deal with.  You see, I was a computer geek in the 1980s, when the PET and C64 were all the rage.  Of course, like most non computer people, I never kept up with the Morse Law, and thank my lucky stars I didn't try.  Who wants to learn a whole new language every 18 months!  Anyway, I'm a bit of a computer dummy right now.  I'm not even good at learning to use new programs like I used to be.  I blame that on MS Office 7.  It is SO user unfriendly it's unreal, but that's a topic for another blog.  Anyway, my Internet Explorer crashed on me the other day. I couldn't go anywhere or do anything on the net.  So I couldn't update my blog or even catch up on my reading. After days of trying to figure out what was wrong, my computer guru friend that does technical writing for Windows at Microsoft figured out that I had a stuck key on a keyboard I only use for writing long blog posts or job applications.  Who knew it could cause such turmoil!  In the end, nothing's wrong with the computer, but I did read an entire book trying to keep busy.

So what has been going on in the garden do you ask?  Well, we've had sub-freezing temperatures with off and on snowfall for over a week.  As a result, it hasn't felt quite springy around here.  On the plus side, my seedlings upstairs are going gang busters.  The downside is that even with my hoop covers in place, I wouldn't trust them in the garden right now.  It's just too cold.  The shock alone would kill them and I'm afraid to take the flat for a daily walk to acclimate them to the weather.  I guess I should just start harvesting salad greens indoors.

I wish I'd checked on my seedlings while the lights were on, because you should really see my earliest tomatoes that germinated.  The plants are downright ready for potting up, or selling as ready-to-plant at a garden store.  I've got 3 really healthy plants that are probably a few weeks away from setting flowers!  A few more are getting their first true leaves, including the one that I have three seedlings in a 9 oz cup.  EG, I sure hope I can duplicate your success with separating them from their confines.  Wish me luck when I do pot them up...

I finally got to read Laura's blog, only to find that she planted her brassica's (cole crops or broccoli/cauliflower if you will), a few weeks ago.  GRRRR. I hate being so far behind her. I totally missed it.  So before I wrote this I ran out to the garage and threw together a handful of soil blocks and filled them with broccoli and cauliflower seeds.  This tray is now resting on top of the bin I'm using for the three remaining ungerminated tomato cups on top of the refrigerator.



Oh, the one off block was planted with the last of my 2008 cauliflower seed. Let's see if it germinates as well as my 2011.  Just an FYI, each block has 2 seeds, so I'm expecting to thin. 

It's funny how I am such a garden optimist, when my brother is the opposite.  He likes to say he's an "accidental gardener."  He says he plants 10 seeds to hope to get 2 seedlings, when he really ends up with 8 or so.  I plant 2 to get 1 and hope to thin.  Odd how our philosophies are so different for gardening, but in the rest of our lives, we're reversed.  Today my wife said I was too negative, which is true and probably related to the economy and my inability to find a job.  Thank goodness I've got my garden and possibly chickens to cheer me up. Come on spring!

Enjoy your garden!