starting seeds: moving outdoors!

It's been awhile since I talked about the progress of the seedlings. That's mostly because they've just been spending time growing in our makeshift seedling grow room (spare bedroom) for the last few weeks/months. 

Technically we should be past the danger of frost at this point in May, but our weather has been touch and go with some frost warnings. Between our really busy spring schedule and the rainy weather we've had, there hasn't been much of an opportunity for us to work outside, so we only got the seedlings fertilized and moved into larger containers to be hardened outside this weekend.

Mark took some of the organic seed starting mix that we used and combined it with top soil and some organic fertilizer.

We used a bucket to bring a bit of the mix in at a time, since we decided to do this at the kitchen island. (Kind of a mistake. The floor was a disaster when we were done. Live and learn.)

We filled a Jiffy pot with the new mix and I delicately extracted the seedlings from the original tray with a plastic spoon. Our seedlings aren't as robust as the ones you can buy at Lowes or Home Depot, but those plants are farther along in their development, plus they are traditionally fertilized. Miracle-Grow plants will grow faster, yes, but I can't bring myself to purchase it, let alone use it.

We had more than we can likely use in our beds, so we're giving some seedlings away. And we ran out of Jiffy pots, so our patio table is a mish mash of seedlings right now. We'll be keeping them outside and bringing them in when the weather warrants to harden them and get them ready to be in the beds soon.

Now to just get the beds ready! I've got good hopes for these, since they are much better looking than last year's seedlings, and those actually did quite well, even if they took longer to grow and develop than others. Nature has a way of taking care of things.

How are your seedlings and gardens coming along?