More Seed Starting

Well a lot has happened in the gardening area these last two weeks. The weather has been warming up, sun has been shining, and the last frost date is approaching. Our garden plot is borderline dry but enough where Aaron could take the tractor and discs out to turn up some dirt this week. The area is big enough we get to prepare it like real farmers! We'll use the walk-behind tiller right before planting. I'm itching to get my spinach and lettuce in. It's kind of annoying that our garden stays wet so long with it being as low as it is (but somehow is bone dry in the summer), because technically early seeds could've been planted already. But I do have my little seedlings to watch, so I guess they will have to hold me over until next week when I can plant seeds in the actual garden. 

This week I did something new that I had been wanting to try. I started pumpkins indoors! Since they need warm soil in order to germinate, we can't plant them outside until the beginning of June. We've had a rough time starting some of our squashes in the past and I think it may be because of trying to get them in too early, even though it was always after the last spring frost date. By starting them in pots, they have an extra month growing time before the garden and weather is ready for them. Plus, most growers in our area don't have pumpkins ready until early-mid October, but the demand for them begins in September. I'm hoping that by starting them early I can have an earlier harvest and make sales before our area has an influx of them.

We've been trying to look for ways I can make extra income while also caring for our children. Options seem kind of limited unless I build a fence or cage for the toddler, but one thing I can do is expand our garden some and try putting a stand out by our decently-busy road. That's another thing I've wanted to do for awhile, but the past two summers we have been super busy, we've needed lots of produce for our own canning and eating, and I was pregnant both years, so we never got around to selling any "extra". This year however, we decided to cut way back on our garden size since we have a nice amount of canned goods left from previous years, and also because Aaron decided it was more profitable for him to spend the time he would've been helping me weed and use that time to work one of his various money-making jobs instead, since that would put more money in the bank than trying to save a few dollars by growing our own produce (as much as it sounds like trying to get out of weeding). We prefer not buying grocery-store produce if we don't have to, and still hope to have enough home-grown vegetables to feed us through this next year, but this year our goal is to save money to put toward buying a house, so it seemed like a good idea to cut back and spend more time on money-making stuff. By having a smaller garden area, I'll be able to weed it myself during the day while the kids get some fresh air. But if you know us, we don't really know how to downsize. You'll have to watch and see if we're able to leave some of the garden area unplanted! 

After moving my tomato seedlings to larger pots, I was having a rough time figuring out the right amount to water the plants. I ended up killing one of our paste/sauce tomatoes, and this poor plant was all wilted. I was expecting it to wither up and die as well, but looking closer, I saw it was all still green and healthy looking aside from the fact that it looked blown over. I gave this one a little extra water than the rest and the picture below is how it looks just a few days later! I'm still trying to get the hang of water in the different soil, but at least it's standing upright again!

When I started my seeds in the little starter pellets I put two seeds in each, so if one never came up I wouldn't have to worry about replanting and losing a week or so of growing time. My seeds were a few years old, and a large percentage of the pellets only grew one seedling. I've never had so few seeds not come up, but I was going to weed the extra one out anyway, so it worked out fine. I had seeds come up in all (maybe all but one? I can't remember) the little pellets. When I transplanted them a couple weeks ago, I weeded out the weakest from the ones that grew more than seed. I gave the extras to Adam so he could feel like he was planting too, but then decided to try putting some in a pot with soil anyway just to see what would happen. I salvaged two of those extras and put them in the same pot, marking it so I could watch and see how it did. One of them withered and died, but I still have this one growing just as strong as some of my other tomato plants! I wasn't expecting it to do much since I had disturbed its little roots, but seeing it thriving now makes me glad I rescued it. I just wished I would've thought to do it with the other ones I pulled. If nothing else I could've put the extra fruit out at a little garden stand!