How many plants do you end up with by the time you're done?

I have lots of seed starting mix, but it appears I used most of the flower seed that would be started about now. I kind of got carried away with how many seeds per milk jug I did when I did my first ever winter sowing.

Tomorrow I'm going to plant 3 different types of tomatoes, and a few marigolds. DH has put up 4 fixtures for me so I better get at it, now that last frost date is hopefully only 9 weeks away.

Is it too soon to start Zinnias? I've never grown them. Also, when various seed packets say to start indoors 6-8 weeks before last frost, is it better to go closer to 8 or 6 weeks? Does the two week gap make a lot of difference?

I fired up the wood stove in the green house today. Tomorrow I will start taking containers of seedlings out there to be transplanted. Because of the weather I have put off sowing most of my seeds 7 to 10 days behind normal schedule. I have 7 lights going in the plantroom so after tomorrow I can start turning several lights off....Jean

I did half a flat of white petunias and half a flat of red. Most of these will go to the school's front planters - their colours are red and white, and i've done their containers for the past four years. They usually turn out pretty nice. As for the rest, there aren't many of each. I can take cuttings from the impatiens as they grow and have lots of extra plants from them.

Usually i "spring sow" zinnias, outside in April - like winter sowing, but since they're tender, they get protected. It's just easier doing it that way for me because i don't have a lot of space indoors.

Jean, i wish i had a greenhouse! You'll have to really work at keeping it warm, won't you?

I've got my lights set up and bought new bulbs... I just can't motivate myself to start the seeds yet. :0( I know I need to or I'm going to have November asters again.

I just have a feeling that it's going to be a late year but I really hope I'm wrong about that!

I'm usually thinking about starting to heat the greenhouse around this time, and the lights are generally overflowing with seedlings. But with not doing farmer's market this year, the schedule is much different. I've started Petunias and have 2 seedlings of the double purple Angel's Trumpet, but that's it so far. We're going to Arizona next week, so the rest will have to wait until I get back.

Our long range forecast still doesn't look very good - as a matter of fact another 10 cm of snow is predicted for tomorrow.

Onion seedlings were sown March 10 under basement grow lights, emerging nicely now. Ornamental hot peppers sown a couple days ago. Spring is coming, I'm sure of it, even if every sign outdoor says otherwise...

I have to sow my onion seeds, they were on back order and came yesterday. Hope it's not to late. These ones are red and the last batch, planted in Feb) were white. They are doing well.

Haven't started any seeds for the last couple of years. Hopefully next year I will be back starting all my seeds again. Can't wait to get my hands back in the dirt. lol

Sierra

Just did asters today, have petunias, tomatoes, peppers,lobilia, herbs all up. Cheryl

Started my first ever from seed tomatoes this morning. Thought I'd use my new bottom watering pots, and duh, was so excited, I didn't even think about there being no dome cover. Lucky I had some saran wrap in the house.

I started Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red Tomato, Old Brooks Tomato, and Sioux Tomato. 3 pots each.

So far I have 4 measly little leeks that have come up. Hmmm. How much will leek soup from them be worth when I've had a 4' fluorescent on 16 hours per day for almost 2 weeks, LOL !

I started an 8" container each of Maltese Cross and Dame's Rocket today.

Not really exciting for the experienced growers here, but as a newbie at indoor planting, I have high hopes. =:)

I've winter-sown both and they're easy, so shouldn't be too bad inside. Hope to do more tomorrow - we've been busy with house-type work (as opposed to housework and it shows! LOL) but we're pretty much done with that now, so i can get at some seeding.

Some of my winter sowing was Maltese Cross and Dame's Rocket, but I also thought I'd better try them in the house. Hopefully both methods, or at least one, produce some plants.

It wouldn't really be very funny if I failed at both, LOL !

About the housework..........have you ever heard of the one where you put Get Well cards out, so that if someone comes over unexpectedly when your house is a mess, then you have an excuse ! =:)

No, but you can leave your vacuum cleaner in the middle of the floor and if anyone comes, they'll think you were in the middle of it! LOL

LOL I have used that one many times Marcia! Just potted up fifteen huge Begonia bulbs-fighting back the grey weather the best way I can. I have about 18 little tomato seedlings up, mixed bag of short season varieties I couldn't pass up because they looked so pretty! I think my planting fever got ahold of me to much,can't grow tomato's in this part of the country without a greenhouse. Time to put the thinking cap on!

Really difficult to get motivated with the dreary cold and overcast conditions that have so dominated the month of March ... it's going on April and there's still almost 3 ft of snow on the ground and by the sounds of the long range forecast, we're gonna be looking at white for a good while to come.

Had to force myself to start sowing seeds, though now have the peppers, snaps and most of the zinnias in. I normally don't start the zinnias until about April 10 th, though wanted to put out larger more established plants. I grow the Mellagan Series ... these really are excellent plants, though of course are heat lovers and heat isn't always something we receive in the Edmonton area. The Profusions are fantastic, they don't mind cooler temps and bloom freely. Profusion Double Golden is a stand out color, I also love the Double white and this year am trying Double Fire.

Tomatoes are next to start and also need to get the rudbeckias going ... hurry up spring!

Terrance

All my petunias are up and some other things, but i need to get going today. Got a bale of ProMix this week, so there's no excuse! I also need to get my begonias going. One thing i did do this week is plant some acidanthera bulbs. There were 25 in the package, so i still have more to go, but at least a few will get a head start!

About a month ago I had the blandest store-bought salad ever, so out of frustration I planted a dishpan of various greens (lettuce, green onions, cress, arugula) and will be having a baby salad tonight, and thinning them out a bit. I think every single seed sprouted.

I've got 36 pots of tomatoes started... The bunch I planted just over 2 weeks ago are starting to show tiny "real" leaves, and the second bunch from last weekend are just starting to poke out now. I don't really need or want THAT many tomatoes, but I'll be sharing them with DD (who moved out in the fall and is planning her first garden of her own this year) and another friend. Plus (and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had this problem) I had an aging half packet of "mixed" heritage tomato seeds that had been given to me. There are 2 varieties out of the 5 or 6 in there that I really would like to start growing. Being biologically unable to do things the easy way, I'm hoping to get at least one plant of each of those varieties out of the 18. I can dream, right? ;)

I've also planted my peppers, okra (never tried growing that, it'll be an adventure) and various herbs.

Next weekend I'll start the next volley... that should hold me until I can start playing in real dirt! Very few of my flowers need to be started early... most of the ones I love are self-seeding and I just have to weed out the ones I DON'T want.

Hopefully the grapes I planted last spring made it through the winter. It's not like 27923723475 feet of snow isn't a good insulator, but it might have crushed the life out of them by now.

LOL @ the "27923723475 feet of snow"! Don't we all understand!

Got everything done today that i wanted to - all the stuff that should be started 8-10 weeks before last frost. The way things are going this year, it could be July long weekend. Sigh...

I started some lettuce seeds too, but what a good idea to have a pan full like that! I don't have onion seeds - is that what you used? I doubt if onion sets will be out for awhile. What about radishes? Can they be grown indoors?

** Announcement **

I am pleased to announce the birth of my first born, Andrew Rahart, who popped into this world at approximately 10:00 a.m. this morning. I am also pleased to announce the birth of his brothers, Sioux and Brooks, arriving early this evening.

I would like to thank all the members of GardenWeb, including those on the tomato forum, for helping to make this occasion happen. I couldn't be more pleased =:)

Now that these five little babies have arrived, I have a question please. I've put them downstairs under the lights, but the timer will turn the lights off at 10:00 p.m. which only gives them almost 3 hours of bright light. Should I leave them down there where it's going to get fairly cool, or bring them back up to the "nursery" in the bathroom where it'll be toasty warm with the door closed until morning?

I'm pumped now. Tomorrow I just have to plant more seeds =:)

Congrats on your babies! Is it just for this evening that they'd have the 3 hours of light? I'd leave them under the lights, not bother moving them back and forth.

That's what i forgot - i have a few tomato seeds left from last year and was going to plant them. Will do it another day, i guess.

Yes, it'll just be for tonight that they get only 3 hours.

The timer will turn the lights back on at 6:00 a.m. for 16 hours.

Tomorrow I think it's time to plant some lettuce and arugula. Mamahoohoo has made me hungry for fresh greens.

Marcia about the radishes. I just recently read on the Growing from Seed forum, someone suggest a teacher have the class plant radishes indoors. What the heck? Give it a try and let us know =:)

Okay, that will be my project this week. I think i have some seeds for spring greens and will use that too. Need to get the onion seeds, though. I will report!

Oops ! I just got 18 packets of seeds in the mail. Funny how most of them say plant 8 weeks before last frost. Hmmm. That better be now ! No more winter weather!

Today and tomorrow I'll be planting......Dianthus, Primula, more Dianthus, Marigolds, Parsley, Johnny Jump Ups, Arugula, Milkweed, Delphinium, Lettuce, more Lettuce, Spinach, more Lettuce.

If anyone thinks I'm on the wrong track here, please feel free to let me know. I think I've fallen into some type of semi-conscious state or something, and all I can think of is plants, plants, and more plants ! Where on earth am I going to put them all?

Would now be a good time to confess that I only have 2 4x4 vegetable garden spots? Goodbye lawn, hello potager =:)

Yeah, the onions were from seed. They were still too small to make any difference in flavour, but they sure are adorable when they look like green cat whiskers sticking straight up! :)

The salad itself was deeelicious! Small, but so much better than the bags of half rotten stuff that travelled from who-knows where. :)

NAF you make me laugh. As I have said in many a post, every year I get rid of more grass. What's the point, why have grass when you can have flowers and veg. I turned my traditional veg garden into raised beds and a semi potager several years ago and I love it. very little weeding and it is so nice to wander through the beds and not come out muddy.

Planted sweet peas this weekend in newspaper pots. A new experiment. We will see how that works out.

Still need to do lavetera, lettuce plugs and maybe nasturtiums.

Oh No !

bdgardener you do Lavatera in the house, too ? I plant it every year, except last year, and I always start it outside. I wonder if I have enough room for that downstairs too??

Do you have pictures of the semi-potager?

O.K. Outside it's trying to snow!

I just planted the following. I'm wondering if the Dianthus and Johnny Jump Ups needed stratification or not. Eek!

Strawberry Super Parfait Dianthus
Raspberry Super Parfait Dianthus
Helen Mound Johnny Jump-Ups
Oklahoma Blend Zinnia
Magellan Sunburst Zinnia
Italian Parsley

Do I have a clue what I'm doing? Maybe. Maybe not.

I had no problem germinating perennial dianthus seeds without any stratification. The kinds I did were 'Arctic Fire" and "Sooty Sweet William".

Not sure about Johnny Jump Ups but I imagine they'd be like pansies, which don't need a stratification period.

I planted my tomatoes today. 28 varieties, 5-10 seeds each. I don't know if I can give away that many.

I finally got all my "early" stuff planted, scared of the thought of November asters. I did tomatoes, 2 kinds of asters, annual phlox, oregano, purple salvia, hollyhocks (mainly to test seed viability, it's old), and cuphea ignea. I'm keeping it simple this year, I don't need to be running 12 light strips anymore.

NAF I started lots of annual inside this year, I did the asters and will do the lavatera and zinnias cause I'm sooooooooo tired of getting blooms for a week and then having them die due to frost. I'm about 20 minutes to the mountains so nights are cold and for the last two years we really have not had any real summer heat.

I will have to dig around for some photos of my semi potager. If I can't find any I will be sure to take lots this summer. C

I did up my hanging baskets the other day while I still have room to sit them on the potting benches. Soon enough I will have to hang them and climb a stepping stool to water so I will enjoy this while it lasts.I am transplanting more then sowing now..progress! Friends ask me if I am doing as many plants every year as the previous year..of course! I wont have an inch of spare space in the green house by the time I am done, sometimes I have to get really creative to find that space...lol..Jean