On February 16, a new gardening experiment was begun in our house. That day, I planted some kale, Napa cabbage and mesclun mix seeds. Great idea, but I hadn't totally thought it through. I forgot that we'd booked a mini-vacation in Kingston in 3 weeks. I am not sure what the neighbours there thought when they saw me carry two trays of green plants from the car into the house. I knew there were large windows in the unit and, worse comes to worse, maybe I could move the table next to the window for them.
It turned out that the bathroom was an even better place for our little plant babies. We kept the lights on all day and night and kept the door closed so there was lots of humidity for them. And, good news! They survived.
I've been experimenting with pushing the growing season so we will have earlier greens for the food bank this year. This morning, I "pricked out" (Oh Monty Don, I love your gardening terms) some Napa cabbages and a few of the Mesclun plants that were getting crowded. Below is where they were. Now there are pepper seeds planted in their spots.
Behind them, in the cloches, are tomato seeds - newly planted. I think these babies will do the work of germination nicely.
I was still left with this tray of recovering-from-the-vacation greens and wondered what to do with them? I've been following a knowledgeable gardener from Nova Scotia who grows cool weather crops all winter in a greenhouse with no added heat. I am a bit leery of trying that here. I think that it is still a bit early to transplant these to our Vegepod. What to do? They are getting big. This morning I made the decision to cut-and-come-again with these plants. Right now. Let's see how it works. Hopefully, in a few weeks, the Vegepod will be warm enough during the daytime and there will still be enough plant matter to transplant.
What I "pricked out" was transplanted into these handy compostable pots. They look a little worse for wear, but I think by tomorrow they will be fine. They are now taking over the dining room table. Ted bought some grow lights which have been screwed into the light over the table. And, lucky guys...... they have their own heating pad underneath their tray.
Oh, and there are our first cut-and-come-again home-grown greens of 2023!
Yum.
“Is the spring coming?" he said.
"What is it like?"...
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
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