Seedling Progress

Here is my flat of seedlings that has been under a grow-light in the basement. I had it out in a semi-sunny area for an hour while I was working in the garden. The plants need to start building up a tolerance to actual sunlight. There are a lot of different things in there so I won't go through them all. Most are doing well and are on schedule. The broccoli and cauliflower (bottom right corner) will be the first things to be transplanted in a week or so. Many of the more tender things won't be transplanted for another month or so.

I finally put together the compost tumbler that Jaime got me for my birthday. My old system of throwing stuff in a garbage can with some holes in the bottom and periodically trying to turn it over with a shovel wasn't working very well. It was a pain to try to mix the stuff up, I never seemed to have the right moisture level in it (wet on the bottom, dry on top), and was just slow at turning the stuff to usable compost. Hopefully this sleek new composting machine will remedy all of those problems. It really is pretty amazing how much compostable material we generate.
Avid blog readers may remember that I planted the stem of one of last year's brussels sprouts plants with a few buds that not only survived the winter, but seemed to be growing. I wondered what would come from these buds. A regular brussels sprout plant that had a good head start? Alas, all three sprouts have flower buds, so it appears that they will just flower and go to seed. I guess brussels sprouts must be a bi-ennial plant. I guess that makes sense since they don't flower during the first year when you plant them.