T-MINUS 6 DAYS AND COUNTING
Feb. 22nd, 2010 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluesgardenUntil starting the first seeds, of course! Namely impatiens (such a good name), sage, and oregano. That'll be Sunday while Saturday is the 6th Annual Seed Swap in Toledo held at the Toledo Botanical Garden and Wildwood Metropark. This will be the first time I've gone, so I'm looking forward to it! I'm mainly going for the seed swap, although the "Trouble Shooting Your Garden" and "Preserving the Harvest" workshops are both potentially interesting.
My "Valentine's Day present" from D was fluorescent light bulbs (for the light stand that still has yet to come together) and seed starting mix. The bulbs ended up being 4 full-spectrum and 2 "grow lights", all by Sylvania, mostly because we want to see if there's a difference. My thought was that the full-spectrum lights doubled would help to grow seedlings and supplement Blue's winter/spring light needs at the same time.
The day we picked up the bulbs we also went out to dinner with a gift certificate and coupon we had from Christmas, so it was our "Valentine's Day" (in so much as we celebrate it). After we'd picked up the light bulbs and were heading home, D turned to me in the car and said what he'd been waiting all day to say: "I didn't get you flowers for Valentine's Day, Hon. Grow your own flowers!"
*facepalm*
As far as the seed starter goes, I've yet to find a good local source for the materials to make my own so that's on the back burner for this year, but D came up with another solution: Berger Mix 1, commonly called BM1. It's a commercial product and what a lot of local greenhouses use as seed starter so it's available nearby in 3.8 cubic feet (0.14 cubic yard) bales for $24.
One description lists the BM1 like so: This mix is ideal for a wide variety of plants. Its composition of long fiber peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, and starter fertilizer charge promotes rapid root growth and uniform crop. Components include 81.25% coarse peat moss, 13.75% horticulture perlite and 5% horticulture vermiculite. Technically, BM1 is the all-purpose mix while BM2 is the germination mix, but everyone seems to use BM1, so I'll give it a try.
We chatted with the owner of the greenhouse when we picked up the starter and he's predicting there'll be a downturn in gardening sales after last year's big boom, mostly because people found out gardening at a certain scale can be hard work. It didn't help that late blight made last year a shaky one for tomatoes in large parts of the country. I suggested (and he agreed) that there's going to be a corresponding upturn in the farmer's market traffic because a lot of people did get a taste for fresh veggies (or they're subscribing to the 'locavore' movement advocating the eating of locally produced food), but they don't want the expense (those shiny tools are very tempting), the work, or the unpredictable availability of their own garden. Which is completely understandable, particularly for people already leading busy lives!
Is it Saturday yet?!
My "Valentine's Day present" from D was fluorescent light bulbs (for the light stand that still has yet to come together) and seed starting mix. The bulbs ended up being 4 full-spectrum and 2 "grow lights", all by Sylvania, mostly because we want to see if there's a difference. My thought was that the full-spectrum lights doubled would help to grow seedlings and supplement Blue's winter/spring light needs at the same time.
The day we picked up the bulbs we also went out to dinner with a gift certificate and coupon we had from Christmas, so it was our "Valentine's Day" (in so much as we celebrate it). After we'd picked up the light bulbs and were heading home, D turned to me in the car and said what he'd been waiting all day to say: "I didn't get you flowers for Valentine's Day, Hon. Grow your own flowers!"
*facepalm*
As far as the seed starter goes, I've yet to find a good local source for the materials to make my own so that's on the back burner for this year, but D came up with another solution: Berger Mix 1, commonly called BM1. It's a commercial product and what a lot of local greenhouses use as seed starter so it's available nearby in 3.8 cubic feet (0.14 cubic yard) bales for $24.
One description lists the BM1 like so: This mix is ideal for a wide variety of plants. Its composition of long fiber peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, and starter fertilizer charge promotes rapid root growth and uniform crop. Components include 81.25% coarse peat moss, 13.75% horticulture perlite and 5% horticulture vermiculite. Technically, BM1 is the all-purpose mix while BM2 is the germination mix, but everyone seems to use BM1, so I'll give it a try.
We chatted with the owner of the greenhouse when we picked up the starter and he's predicting there'll be a downturn in gardening sales after last year's big boom, mostly because people found out gardening at a certain scale can be hard work. It didn't help that late blight made last year a shaky one for tomatoes in large parts of the country. I suggested (and he agreed) that there's going to be a corresponding upturn in the farmer's market traffic because a lot of people did get a taste for fresh veggies (or they're subscribing to the 'locavore' movement advocating the eating of locally produced food), but they don't want the expense (those shiny tools are very tempting), the work, or the unpredictable availability of their own garden. Which is completely understandable, particularly for people already leading busy lives!
Is it Saturday yet?!
