When to Fertilize?

The past couple of weeks have been filled with rain and flu running rampant through the family.  The flu running through the family, not the rain.  That stays outside.  Family inside.  Not much time for gardening, although I did seem to have enough time to whip up a batch of American Pale Ale last night.  Go figure.

The book on raising plants from seed said I should start fertilizing when the first "real" leaves appear?  What the hell are "real" leaves?  Are these plastic?  I would like it a lot better if I fertilize when it says "Feed Me, Seymour".  I'm just sayin' it would be easier.

Seeds: Sweet Jesus, What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

I received my first two seed catalogs in the last week.  First two catalogs...ever.  One from Burpee and one from Johnny's Seeds.  There are really 13 types of carrots?  Really?  Not just "orange"?  Oy, what have I embarked into?  Well, we've made our first attempts.

First tray.  Ever.  There are 8 sections.  Three of the sections contain catmint (27 plants, hopefully), two sections of Snapdragons (18 plants), one of English Daisy (9 plants), one of Forget-Me-Knots (9 plants) and one of Foxgloves (9 plants).

The catmint goes back to our plan post for the east side of the backyard.  (Look, a link!!)  I need 14 plants, so I roughly doubled it with the 27.  We have plenty of spots should any survive above 14.

The remainder of the plants will go by the front door and around the small vegetable garden we're putting in.  I'm drawing the plan up for that one, and should have that in a near future post.

Those of you who know these things are probably saying, "but, Turling, those plants all have different germination times."  Yes, they do.  I planned for that.  Because, I'm now a planner.  Didn't you see the binder?  I'm a planner now.  It's actually come in handy, as I had no idea how many types of seeds I planted until I went and consulted the journal.  I then noticed I had written everything down and typed in that I had planted a total of seven sections.  But, as you can see from the picture, I planted eight.  Thank God for markers.  Let's just go with I "plan".

Anyway, germination.  The Catmint and Forget-Me-Knot packages state they germinate in 10-14 days.  The others in 7-14 days.  So, in my infinite wisdom, I planted those two three days sooner then the others.  That way, they should all start about the same time and I can move them to sun at the same time.

Well, slap my ass and call me Fannie, if those damn catmint didn't pop up after four days.  And, the English Daisies...two!  I'm sure there's some, "the English are always early" joke, but I don't know what it is.  Make up your own.  I'm bitter about my seeds timing, right now.

The tray I purchased from the local garden center came with a plastic dome.  You can sort of see it propped up in the back of the picture.  It said to crack the dome open when the first seedlings (that's what they're called, right?) appear.  So, that's where we're at.  After the other pop up, I'll move them to our south facing bay window in the kitchen, and trim all but the strongest looking from each section while removing the plastic dome and leaving them uncovered.  I don't think I'm going to wait more than a couple of days, though.  It seems to me that they will grow just fine without the dome in the sun, so I don't want to lose the one's that have started waiting on the others.  We'll see how that goes.  I'll write it all down in the journal.  Well, 7/8's of it, at least.

SPURS UPDATE:  Big win against Sunderland yesterday at the Stadium of Light.  Three wins in a row now, even with a mass of injuries and we're back in fourth pending the outcome of Chelsea's game Monday.  Champion's League Round of 16 Tuesday against AC Milan in Italy.  I'll be taking the day off of work in order to enjoy the game from the comfort of my couch.  Now, go plant something.

I'm at a Loss...Again

I think I put them in upside down.  Apparently, there was a top and a bottom.  They looked like pieces of straw at the time with no discernible right-side or wrong-side.

These were the three daylillies from a previous post.  Only one has sprouted.  I dug up the other two to see if there was any sign of greenness, but no.  Now, the one that survived sprung up way over to one side, which is why I'm thinking they went in upside down.  Crap, there's another weed in the picture.  I think I need to take a photography class and study "staging"; primarily, as it applies to the absence of weeds.

I'm not sure which daylilly this is, so it is a little exciting anticipating which it will be.  I did notice there is a second sprout, which is barely visible from the living pot.  In hindsight, I'm thinking I may have put two in one pot.  Twice the fun, I say!

Plants, What a Concept!!

Ok, not exactly plants, but an attempt!!  This weekend while buying PVC pipe for the new sprinklers, I saw that daylillies were on sale for a buck!!  So, I bought a couple.

El Desperado and Siloam Ury Winniford.  We got them into pots right away, considering I think we've missed the California planting window.  Now, the package said to plant them "point side up".  There was no point side.  There was a disc and some tentacles that resembled the hair of Predator.  I planted hair side down, although in retrospect, I probably should have planted one in each direction just to be safe.  Although, I wouldn't have written down which end was up, so I would have been at a loss anyway.

The daylillies are the three smaller pots on the left.  The larger pot on the right consists of an unknown amount of onions.

I say unknown, because my son helped me plant them.  There are three rows of them, and we plan on thinning them should they actually sprout.  This is our first attempt at seeds and, I must be honest, the seeds looked like sand.  My son's first reaction was "seriously?  Those look nothing like onions."  I couldn't disagree.  But, when I showed him the onion rings on the package, he couldn't plant them fast enough.

In the meantime, we have the compost down for the lawn.  I would have taken pictures, but it's now dark and the India Pale Ale requires me to not get out of my chair.  I should be able to take picture tomorrow during the day, because...

...the most important game of the season.  Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester City from Manchester.  A win and we capture fourth (combined with an Arsenal loss and a win on Sunday and we get third!!  Lasagana revenged!!!  Look it up.)  A draw is fantastic, as we will remain in fourth.  A loss, and it becomes 98% we get fifth.  Not good.  Let me explain for the Americans:

The top four teams in the Premier League qualify for the Champion's League.  This is equivalent to the NCAA basketball tournament where all the Champions from all the leagues of Europe (and every country has one) play in a months' long tournament next year.  If we finish fifth, we qualify for the Europa league, which is the equivalent of the NIT tournament.  Do you know who won the NIT tournament?  I didn't think so.  Needless to say, the money is monumentally different between the two tournaments.

Therefore, I am taking a half day tomorrow from work, so I can be home by noon PDT to watch the game on ESPN2.  I expect ALL of you to do the same.  Ok, both of you.  Also, it's Cinco de Mayo, and my lovely wife gets to celebrate her Mexican heritage.  I get to drink Pacifico and watch the English Premier League.  Win-win in my book.