Seeds of a fundraiser

So my husband and de facto garden assistant Bill and I spent some time on garden things today, and I thought I'd let you all know what was up. First off, we pulled out all the bags and buckets of garden-related junk I'd stuffed into our storage unit last fall, and sorted out what needed to be dealt with.

I finished organizing our seeds, then packed up what we needed and headed out. First stop: the garden itself, where we collected a few buckets-worth of trash and litter, and I finally refilled the dog waste bag dispenser (donated by gardener Abby Falck, many thanks!). 

One bummer was that I cannot find any of the locks from the set I got last year; I think they may have all already been used/broken/lost, and now we are lockless. We were planning on updating all the locks to a single key soon, so now we will just distribute the new keys at Opening Day on April 17.

Then we headed to Devon Hardware, where I got some biodegradable seedling cells and good planting mix. Next stop: the greenhouse atop the science building at the university where Bill teaches. We spent the next few hours prepping the soil, setting up grow lights, and planting 256 cells of seeds (most had multiple seeds, so we have the potential for well over 1000 seedlings!).

The first four trays (32 cells each)

And the second four trays.

The vast majority of seeds we planted were tomatoes: beefsteak, early, cherry, paste, dwarf, green, yellow, red, heirloom, hybrid… even a white tomato! We also planted an entire flat of marigolds, quite a few zinnias and nasturtiums, about six different peppers (both sweet and hot), and some eggplants. And every seed was donated!

Bill giving the seeds a little drink, before they get stashed under the grow lights.

This is half the seeds, under one bank of three grow lights. 

In April, we will transplant those seedlings into pots, and then start more seeds (basil, zucchini, summer squash, kale, maybe a few more things). And on the weekend of May 14-15, we will hold our very first fundraiser plant sale! Mark your calendars and start spreading the word… we will have hundreds of organically grown herb, vegetable, and flower starts, ready for transplanting. 

Now I just need to figure out how all those flats of plants are going to fit into my dinky little Honda...