Firsts

I brought my seedlings home from work yesterday and set them outside this morning for some full unfiltered sun. I hoped they'd be fine, but assumed that some would be dead...like the little habanero that looked like one of the cats decided to step on it in the middle of the night. I, like a dum-dum, put the seedlings in a location that during the winter gets about 7 hours of sun, which means it's probably getting at least 8 hours of sun, and it's not all that sheltered either. So when it started getting dark at work because of the clouds rolling in, I just assumed that it was quite possible that all the seedlings would be dead. Thankfully they aren't all dead, but some of them do look worse for the wear (especially the ones that were getting super tall and leggy at work). I think it pretty much means that I should have brought them home maybe a week or so earlier because the short stumpy ones look absolutely gorgeous. So I guess I can use Popsicle sticks and tie up the wimpy plants for some stabilization until they get their grow on.

Also, I finally decided it was time to start ripping out plants in the fall garden as it's getting close to that spring planting time. I originally thought about pulling out entire squares (an entire square of spinach and an entire square of carrots) except that would mean a heck of a lot of carrots and more spinach than we could eat in one night. So I instead opted to pull enough for us to have a single serving salad and will go out and pull more tomorrow night. I'm also debating on whether to leave some stuff in the garden so when my inlaws come down the week after SXSW, we can have fresh garden stuff...well, I mean some stuff will for sure still be in there (like beets, garlic, swiss chard, and onions). I guess I'll play it by ear and see if it looks like the spinach or broccoli are going to bolt (I'm actually surprised the broccoli hasn't bolted yet).

Also, I count this year as a success when it comes to carrots. The ones I pulled today are only as big as my pinky finger, but still, that's the biggest carrots have ever been since I started gardening here 4 years ago. GO RAISED BEDS!