Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Gardening~ 18 Weeks Before My Last Frost -Planting Herbs

My planted Parsley and Thyme

    
I worked on goal 3 (Plant Herbs - Parsley and thyme). I couldn't wait! I love starting plants from seed, or at least trying to. I save so much money that way. One pack of seed is about $3 but one transplant is $3, you can get over 25 plants for price from one seed packet!

I'm going to explain how I plant my seeds, step by step.

Step 1 ~ Get everything you need! I have 36 pellet seed starter kit (to start my seeds), my seeds (in there zip-lock bags, notebook, paper, tape, pen, water (to expand my pellets).

Stuff I use

Step 2 ~ Expand the pellets, I use hot water. It seems to make them expand faster.

Expanding the pellets with water

Step 3~ Write down what I'm planting. I planted five different seeds when I started this, but I'm only focusing on herbs right now. (I'll post the other seeds in a different post) Now I take my little paper and write the name of each plant twice. I use bright color paper so you can see it better. I do this so I can label it easier and I normal do it while the pellets are expanding.


Writing down the plants for labeling
Step 4 ~ now before I plant anything I write it down in a notebook one at a time. I write down, what I'm planting, name of the seed packet, the date, week before frost, the number of seeds used in each pellet, number on pellets, and take a picture of the seed pack. That way I can see what I'm expecting to see.

Writing down in notebook

Step 5 ~ I put a few seeds in my hand. I recheck the seed so make sure they are good, no weird colors, or mold.

Checking-Parsley Seeds

Step 6 ~ Plant the Seeds. I normal would put 2 seed per pellet, but because they are 2 years old, I put 4 in each pellet.

Planting - Parsley seeds
Step 7 ~ Label the row. This is where step 3 comes in to play. I use the line paper because if you write in the line and cut out in the line size, you can use tape. If you use tape it will seal the name in it so if it get wet. You don't loss the name you have on the box.
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Step 8 ~ put them in Light. I am lucky, Hubby put up grow lights in our basement for me. I have my plants in light form 6am-7pm. We added a timer last year to make it easier on me.

Plants in Light

Step 9 ~ Add it to my computer Journal. This step is for my records, I thinking a computer journal will make it easier to see what I have done in the past and to have picture detail. It also can work on my phone or everywhere else. I'm hoping to get it good enough; I can add recipes and information in it for each plant. I do tell you to write it down on paper too, because it could take time for you to get into the computer and you don't want to forget information. I future post I’ll show you what my computer journal looks like.
 
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