It's Seed Starting Time!

The weather has been nutz!!  I walked out yesterday morning and saw that my tulips were starting to come up!! Yikes!  I tried to cover them up with some more mulch and I'm glad I did because it SNOWED!!  What a weird day.  Anyway, I started the first phase of seed starting.  I started my kale, collards, eggplants, peppers and some flowers about a week ago using my empty toilet paper rolls and whatever scavenged containers I had saved from last year. The window over my kitchen sink has become the prime place to start seeds. For some reason, the plants LOVE that window.  My mint that I had propagated from cuttings went crazy so I'm starting more cuttings as well as some more basil.

The first to sprout was my chamomile!! I think it only took about 2 days!

In the greenhouse, I had put peppers, kale, collards and impatiens. I'm not sure if the greenhouse has been warm enough so I covered two of the trays holding my pepper plants with Ziploc bags to see if it makes a difference.  Well.... I checked on the plants this morning and basically the toilet paper rolls froze together and I found the interior of the Ziploc bags covered with frost!!

I'll be bringing all of the seeds indoors until they sprout.  Hopefully by then the weather will stabilize and I can put them back in the greenhouse to grow. 

In the fridge, I'm stratifying my columbine seeds.  I hope next month, the columbine will germinate.

I finally planted my passion flower seeds in a pot with seed starting medium.  Next month, I'll start my tomatoes and lupine.  Cross your fingers!

On a sad note, my thai basil started looking a bit ragged and the leaves started to turn brown and drop off.  This morning, I took a good look and found the reason..... spider mites!!  I HATE spider mites!  So, besides gnats, I now have spider mites.  I cut down my thai plant WAY back and isolated the plant with a plastic bag.  I sprayed the hell out of my Italian basil and mint with homemade soapy insecticidal spray and isolated all of them as well.  So irritating.