indoor gardening update

 I don't know what it is I've done differently, but my seed sowing endeavors have been fantastically successful this year versus last.  My yarrow are happily growing on in their red party cup plant pots.

The baptisia are beginning to look like something other than bizarre bean sprouts.

I've transplanted the Blue Fescue grass, which was a nightmare.

Normally I start seeds in the little expandable pellets you can buy, but for the fescue I though I'd try a small square tray setup that I had on hand.  I used seed starting coir and everything went fine, until I tried to transplant.  I'm not sure if I should have let the grass grow on a little more to build up a better root system, but the roots were out the bottoms of the tray so I went for it.  It was nearly impossible to dig those little suckers out!  Coir went everywhere but the grass was stuck tight...I tried using a scoop, a little shovel, and my dibber, but all of them just made more of a mess than necessary.  Pushing up through the holes in the bottom of each square did nothing, even though I'd watered the tray well yesterday in hopes the coir would stick together and just slide right out.  

Never again!

Hopefully I haven't damaged the little grasses to the point they don't survive the transplant.

The verbena bonariensis are starting to take off a little.  They're getting a little taller, and I probably should have put less in each pot.  We'll see how they fare - I really don't have enough room to repot them and spread them out.

I picked up that little clip fan at a Goodwill a few weeks ago.  It's battery operated and not too powerful, so it's perfect for giving the seedlings a little movement.  That helps them develop stronger stems and better prepares them for life outside, in the elements.  I'm using rechargeable batteries to save on cost, and clip it to a different rack each day.  I also have a small fan that recharges via USB ports, and will use that on occasion as well.

It's been bitter cold, but the sun is strong and there's lots of melting and settling.  The snow pack now sits at 6.5" deep in the pasture, which isn't much.  We missed a whopper of a storm that ended up staying south of us, but winter isn't over yet.

 The melting snow has revealed some opportunistic mustard greens that have managed to survive the cold and snow.

I'm thinking of cleaning up the area in front of that planter and just sowing as much mustard green seed as possible, and letting it go wild.  Why not?  It's a tricky place to mow and the less weed whacking I need to do, the better.  Toward the back of the planter is the domed tray I was trying to germinate allium seed in.  Since nothing happened in over a month under the grow lights, I decided to put it outside to see if it responded better to winter sowing.  I don't think it will - the seed are probably toast at this point - but how will I know if I don't try? 

I'm looking forward to getting into the hillside garden and checking my garlic and my leeks to see how they've fared over winter, but it looks like it's going to be a little while yet before that happens.  Patience!