The ?? Greenhouse ???

Does a Canadian Tire instant garage bought on sale know ( or care ) that it has just become the closest thing to green house on the property, and that it has to double as the straw storage unit as well.

Do I care............NO....I'm tickled pick, just waiting to get this thing filled up with dirt, compost and plants.

 Meanwhile, those shelves ( yes,I know they are old doors, one bedroom and one bathroom to be exact...... held up by what's left of the old interlock bricks from the previous patio/deck) holding 5 trays of strawberry starts and a tray of onions with questionable results need water, so I say to the Builder that I need to buy a watering can..........well next day, look...........there's water in the building. I love the way that happens, wish it would work when I say " I need a Porsche "

and yes those are old bathtubs, we own them and we may as well use them, biggest damn flower pot you will ever find, so they will be the raised beds, just waiting for me to fill them. This is a truly reuse, recycle, repurpose building. Pretty it's NOT, but it works for me and there is no chance of giving anyone "greenhouse envy" .

And there's the straw storage in the back. Need more of that.

And last but not least, it's also become the new home for Helen, her safe haven, dust bath spa, my greenhouse helper, companion, apprentice, bug catcher, manure maker and grounds cultivator. As long as we keep that food dish to the left of the water dish

.......it's all good.

Tomato plants, year one experiments in starting from seed.

Judge for yourself..............but your going to have a hard time convincing me now that this is not the ticket for strong tomato plants!!!!

A little bit of moistened compost in a clear cup with 2-3 tomato seeds.

Place in a clamshell container or cover with plastic wrap. Then do nothing till the seeds germinate.

When they are this tall, add more compost about half way up the stem. Do not cover them at this point, keep moist but not wet.

Keep filling the cup so that more and more stem is buried, this will force root growth along the entire length of the stem

When you start to see the roots filling the cup, it's time to move them to a larger cup or pot.

These red cups are perfect for getting more soil up the lenghth of the stem. Add drainage holes to these ones with a drill.

Having the plants go just a little bit root bound ( but not too much ) makes it easy to move the entire root system to it's new larger home.

Tomato plant happily growing strong in it's new home

After a few weeks of being in the larger cups, and set out in front of the window, as the grow stand is now being used for other things, these plants were getting so tall that I was worried about them making it to the garden without having to replant them again. So this being the experimental gardening year for me, I've decided to follow the advice of others and have cut them back, just above the 4th leaf, and taken the tops and put them into plain water to hopefully root, and give me another whole plant.

These were started on Feb 7th, 2012. They are the very doubtful Pear Tomato seeds and I guess I was just getting anxiuos to start using the grow stand, and I also just wanted to see if they would germinate, obviously they did.

 I'd say this isn't too shabby for my first year growing from seed, . BUT.....lesson learnt here............I don't need to start tomatos quite so early next time. I have 8 other varieties of tomatoes started in early March, and they are looking to be a bit more manageable, size wise. I mean, really, I do not need to have all these plants going to full grown size in the house.

you win some, you lose some

I would say this is success with the doubtful pear tomato seeds

But the lettuce was a total bust, maybe having this in the same room as the wood stove is not such a good idea..............just thinkin', feel free to let me know what it is I'm doing wrong with lettuce because, really!!?? it's lettuce, I have never had trouble growing that...........it's starting to feel like a $12.00 tomato project!!

Here we grow

Started my first seeds of the season today inspired by the new grow stand that we scored from someone that is either too big hearted or really doesn't know what these things are worth.......regardless, there's seeds awaitin' and they/me are ever so grateful to the kind hearted soul that let there be light for this.

First batch for the year..............and this is only because I'm still waiting for my new seed order to arrive......lots of old radish seeds for microgreens ( something that I'm still trying to convince Bob the Builder is a good thing, he just sees it as a waste of seeds ) a bed of mixed lettuce, and the seeds that I dried out last year from some pear tomato plants that I found in what was left of a community garden put to bed for the winter, so they are a little doubtful as to whether or not they will work.............so let's start early and see what happens.

Oh, and did I mention that this is the first time for me starting seeds indoors, or seed saving for that matter......so wish me luck.

Pear Tomato seeds....Feb 7 2012

As usuall, I've been surfing to get some tips on all of this, and came across Ray ,  got sucked into the youtube vortex, totally maxed out the internet time for the month....... and in the end, learnt alot about growing indoors. So I will be using my Moms technique of starting them in a clamshell container and adapting that to accomodate deep planting.