Spring has Sprung! ~ Sorta

Well, I have to admit it ~ the springy new-seeds-&-planting-devices-so-you-can-feel-less-hemmed-in-by-the-seemingly-ever-present-visage-of-a-snowbound-yard-stuff bug has bitten us all HARD this year! Those demographically correct advertising consultants certainly do know their stuff ~

A quick stroll through Wally-world, Home Repo, & Slowes will truly get the green blood pumping ~ straight into that thumb! And if you have an especially robust case of it, the green stuff well may spread straight up your wrist and into your wallet as well. I know I was affected.

How badly? Wweeeeeeeellllllll...........

Pretty badly.

Actually.

So badly that I had to gear an entire week around garden plotting, graphing, layout, seed purchasing ( did you know that our $1 store had seeds at 8/$1? WAHHOOO! *YES* I succumbed...) , and other sundry starting cells, & cold-framing accoutrements. Heck, I even included a ~science experiment~ in the lot, making it count for that as well.

This is a bean that we soaked for a few days so that it would easily split in two. Thus the tiny baby plant inside can be seen, even with the naked eye.

And of course, it can be seen even better with a little magnification.

After we learned about the parts of a plant, and their specific duties, we delved into garden plotting, planting zones, soil requirements, lighting requirements, fertilization & insect control, and of course, the big *What do we want to plant ..... that is reasonable... in our zone 4.7 area* question. ( waaahhaaa, I wish we were zone 5.5 at least....so many lovely plants cut off....)

First we planted the herb pots. (Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, chives, lavender, & basil.)

And labeled everything.

Then we got down to REAL business, with all of the vegetables & flowers.

Here are some of our finished rooting cells. (That plethora of chafing pans surely did come in handy!! Five jiffy pack peat cells fit perfectly there-in.)

Update: The next morning we woke up and ALREADY some of the lettuce, spinach, peas, and tomatoes were sprouting out!! YEAH!

One of the tricks?

A plate, some napkins, and a spritzer filled with very warm water. We also watered down the rooting cells with the warm water after filling them with soil. Once the seeds sat on the wet paper towels for a few minutes, we just sprinkled them onto the top of the cells. Then we plastic-wrapped the whole affair & let them sit overnight. Next morning, we spritzed them with warm water again, sprinkled a light layer of soil over the top, and spritzed again. And what do you know, those little seeds have already started sprouting! The kids are thrilled, as we didn't think we would get such immediate results ~ in fact, I was going off of the pkg info, which said germination in 5-10 days. so... WOO ~hoo!!

Shout out to my sister ~ Hester, you would SOO love homeschooling ~ in fact, I think my other sistah's would too, it's so much more fun than public, AND you can do SO much more! I can't wait till the sidewalks are free of ice & snow, as we are going to hold school at the parks, & etc. We can ride our bikes over to the greenbelt, the museum, and several other parks ~ it is just SOO much cooler than public! :-D