OMG our seeds are actually growing

Yes, it's VERY exciting. Every vegetable has at least one seed that has sprouted.

FEAST YOUR EYES!!

Maintenance now is very easy. If it doesn't rain, one of us goes out and waters at night.  That's about all.  Someone once told me you should only water at night so the water doesn't evaporate during the day. I have no idea if it's true or not, but that's what I do.

It's fascinating to see the different growth patterns of each vegetable.  Some are big and leafy, like the squash, others are more spidery and twist their way up the trellises we stuck next to them, while others seem to attract the most attention from the birds and are currently covered in layers of bird poo....

How to grow tomatoes- Part 3

Remember in my "How do grow tomatoes- part 2" post when I said that once the seedlings reach 5-6" in height they should be moved outside? That was, and definitely still is, good advice.  It is advice that I, in spite of having written it down, did not follow.  So our seedlings were...a little too big.  Some of them had outgrown their cartons, literally.  And some of the cartons were, after being moist for so long, (perhaps because of my overly enthusiastic watering), a little moldy.  However, despite the tight quarters, excessive watering, and furry growths, every single one of our seedlings was THRIVING!!!

Which of course left us with a huge problem:  we had roughly 75 seedlings ready to plant, and only enough space for about 4 full grown tomato plants.

I guess we didn't anticipate that we'd have such an amazing success rate.

And so, I did what I could:

First, I disposed of the more moldy/runty looking ones.  Sorry guys.

Second, I planted the healthiest looking ones wherever I could. Our original plan was to plant one tomato seedling into each giant pot (we have 4).  Instead, I planted 2 or 3 into each pot. (I figured they could handle the crowding, based on what they were already used to).  I also found more space in our upright beds, near the mesclun, and planted a few more there.  Then I found/purchased a few more pots and planted a few more.

Ideally, you would want to strategically place these tomato plants in the areas that get the most direct sunlight.  Obviously, that isn't exactly what happened in our case, given the circumstances, but I think most of our tomatoes ended up in fairly optimal spots.

That left about 25 seedlings without a permanent residence.  I left them in their little cartons outside, and thought about where I could plant them or who I could give them to.  I brainstormed for days, maybe a week, and by the time I went outside to check on them, my decision was already made. They were dead.  It was somewhat heartbreaking.  But it certainly made my life easier.  Off to the trash.

Lesson of the day: tomatoes seedlings are fairly indestructible, therefore don't plan hundreds of seeds unless you live on a farm.

How to sow seeds

This was, fortunately, extremely easy, especially in comparison to our efforts on the garden thus far.  Listed on our seed packets were instructions on how deep and how far apart to plant the seeds.  We simply read the directions. And about 15 minutes later, we sowed our seeds.

The only slightly odd thing we did was to create mounds of dirt in which to plant our squash and cucumber seeds. Why, you may ask? I actually have no idea. But Pat told us to do it, so we did it.  I think it has something to do with drainage....I was obviously not paying attention during this tutorial.

Before and After Pics- Pre Seed Sowing

Before...

(Obviously we had some very wild terrain to hack through)

Action Shots

 

After Shot!

(See you later overgrown shrubs and dirty dirt!)

How to grow tomatoes- Tips

GROW LIGHTS

If you don't have an area in your house that gets abundant sunshine, try a grow light! They are very inexpensive and easy to set up.

As you can see from our photo here, we rigged up our grow light onto the bottom shelf of a book case.  We also added tin foil to the sides for added reflection.

PET YOUR PLANTS

Yes, you read that right. Because your tomatoes are inside, they have yet to experience wind.  By petting them, lightly petting them, you are simulating wind and thus making them stronger and more prepared to move outdoors. 

How to grow tomatoes- Part 2

1. Once your cute little seedlings grow their second set of leaves, they need to be thinned out and transplanted into larger containers. 
2. First, let's discuss thinning out. Because you planted 1-3 seeds per container, (in our case, we may have planted more like 10 seeds per container...whoops, don't do that) there's a chance that all 3 seeds have sprouted (again, in our case, we had some containers with all 10 seeds sprouted...we may have underestimated our growing abilities). So you need to literally thin out the seedlings, aka, separate the sprouts from each other so they can grow individually and not crowd each other. Do this CAREFULLY as the roots are very delicate.  I found it was easiest to scoop everything out of the container and then gently pull each sprout with it's roots apart from it's neighbor.
3. Next, re-plant each individual sprout into a larger container with potting soil. If you were like us and a little too generous with how many seeds you initially planted, you'll end up with lots of containers... so you'll have to be creative about finding places to put them...

   4.  Same as before, give them lots of water and sunshine.

   5.  Once your seedlings grow their third set of leaves, (they will be roughly 5-6" in height), they are

        ready to join the big leagues in the garden!

Dirt Removal: Final Chapter

As you can see by the title of this post, our dirt removal woes have FINALLY ended. After the many disappointments and failures, Plan E proved to be stalwart. I can't express to you how accomplished we both felt and still feel, after finally ridding ourselves of over half a ton of old dirt.  Here's how it all happened:

It began with a night of, you guessed it, MORE digging. Yippee, my new favorite pastime.  We headed into the backyard, both of us having just finished jogging and thus full of endorphins and energy.  Our bags of dirt were not in the best shape after three days of heavy rainfall.  Nonetheless, we each took a stance over one of the lumpy, "unliftable" bags now covered in pools of swampy smelling water and mud, and began shoveling out small clumps of dirt which we then threw into new, freshly opened Hefty bags. Though it was dark at this point, our one motion-detecting light was able to provide visibility. Although... I learned a couple things about our motion-detecting light that night.  One, the light only shines brightly for about 30 seconds after detecting motion.  After this 30 seconds, the light becomes significantly dimmer.  This wouldn't be a problem at all if it weren't for the second thing I learned about this light:  It seems to be very picky about the types of movements it deems worthy enough to earn its light.  Thus, we found that the only acceptable movement involved jumping up and down and waving our arms all while positioned in one far corner of the patio, nowhere near to where all of the "unliftable" bags of dirt were in fact sitting.  So you can imagine how quickly our frustration developed when we were forced to stop digging every 30 seconds in order to walk over to that specific area of the backyard and "charm" our motion-detecting light with our frenetic movements. After doing this 14 or 15 times, we both decided it was less obnoxious to work in near darkness.  Remember when I said we were full or endorphins and energy? Yea, that lasted about 5 minutes, after which, we grew increasingly ornery. There we were, bundled up in 5 or 6 layers (because the Northeast winter finally decided to show up, 4 months late, which is especially cruel after that summer tease we had a few weeks ago) shoveling dirt from one open bag to another, all in the dark, at 10 at night, cursing anything in sight- stupid dirt, stupid shovel, stupid bag, stupid LIGHT- all the while, our bags felt as though they were cloning themselves.

It sucked.

And then we were miraculously done, save the 3 bags that we had initially left in the alleyway.  But, when we went to retrieve them, we instead encountered a large, pigeon-y looking bird sitting right next to the bags, almost as if it were standing guard...weird.  We slowly approached the bags and bird, growing more and more nervous, as this bird was not moving, but instead sitting there, staring at us. We whispered back and forth- What should we do?! This is creepy! Should we leave the bags?? No! We've come so far, we're almost done! Okay fine, should we move slowly?! I don't know! I'm scared! Should we just grab them and run? Why are we whispering? Is it even alive?!- I might also mention, that this seemingly pathetic fear of birds is ENTIRELY warranted due to a previous incident in which a bird broke into our apartment, completely unannounced, and proceeded to hide for several hours, and then pop out, scaring the living daylights out of us, and then fly around like a crazy person, completely at random, for several days before finally departing...but I won't get into that...back to the very suspenseful part of this story.  We continued to step closer, our eyes darting back and forth between the bags and the bird.  We were only a few feet away, furiously debating whether or not this bird was in fact alive, when, quite suddenly, it moved. I won't embarrass myself by narrating the next 10 seconds of my life, but let's just say, this effectively ended our work for that evening.

A few days later, the Polish men from Craigslist returned. Without a word, they began moving out the roughly 30 bags of dirt, including the few we had left in the alleyway, from our backyard to their truck out front.  20 minutes and $125 (TOTALLY worth it) later, we were dirt free.

It was, quite possibly, the best day of my life.