I planted a bunch of seeds yesterday, been busy!  I officially  have 20 flats – all of them on heat mats, but only 16 under lights.  I did some rearranging and some thinning out and tossing out, condensing and sorting.  All of them have a different amount of seeds in them, I’m thinking I currently have somewhere around 300 or so seeds started so far.  Not a huge amount compared to some….but a lot for this girl!

I believe when all is said and done, I will have planted over 2,000 seeds, with hopes to have enough to fill up my 1,500 square foot garden (which according to the grid should be around 1,400 flowers-let’s hope 600 of them do not die!)  I also have planters for the patios to fill up, as well as possibly selling some seedlings, but I also have other land that if we NEED to till up to put more plants in, I’m sure we can manage!    Technically, we have 2,500 square feet currently tilled up, but half of that is Joe’s for things that we can actually eat!

Then there’s the gourd garden, and the sunflower patch, so technically if I do have extra, we will find a place for it!  Our 40 acres are not entirely usable, but there is at least 5-10 that I could borrow for a while!!  We’ll start with the 1,500 square feet for now….

Joe and I were standing in the soon-to-be greenhouse (picture of the progress below) when he was chatting about putting up iron braces, to act as a stabilizer, but also as kind of an aesthetic piece as well as some place to hang baskets.  He has mentioned this before, but I thought he meant just my baskets that I’ve collected over the years that I like to use to collect cut flowers in, but no – he meant that I should do hanging baskets.

My response….”Um….in addition to the cut flower garden? But….that’s more money….and time….”

Then he starts to reminisce, he remembered all the patio containers I had last year, and the trough full of flowers….and how much fun they were, and how much fun it is to do hanging baskets (I believe he did them in horticulture class in high school….which means he’ll be helping me out to show me how the pros do it!)  He was so encouraging and supportive….and so convincing!

Honestly one of my most favorite flower is a petunia, which is not for a cut flower garden, so I had decided I just wasn’t going to do them and just focus on the cut flower garden.  I have a ton of planters for the patio, and a cute cow trough that I filled up last year with bright pink petunia’s spilling over the sides, I just love them, but always spend a ton of money on a flower that just comes around once a year and dies…so I decided this year I wasn’t going to even buy any since I would be focusing on the green house expense & growing the cut flower garden.  At least that is what I thought was going to happen….but then Joe suggested hanging baskets, so I said I would see if I could find seeds and see if I had any luck with growing them from seeds to save me some money!

I decided to go on Baker Seed site last night, just poking around, just looking!  I also had a coupon for Burpees site, so of course I had to take a gander at their site….and spend over a certain amount to get my 10$ discount!  Those sites are dangerous!

I’m super excited about the Eucalyptus and several of the other seeds, bulbs, tubers and corms I found…if you are interested in seeing the new list, they are all listed at the top of my 2019 Flower Attempts.  There is also an update as to what I planted this weekend.

On to some high lights from this weekend….

Such a sigh of relief to get the babies out into the sun!  They are so skinny and frail looking – I’m told they will beef up as soon as they get some real sun and some fresh air.

Check out my 2019 Flower Attempts for updates on what specifically was planted and how the other seeds are doing!  These stock seeds were interesting to me, I’m not even sure I’ve ever seen a stock plant, so it will be fun to see what it looks like!

Excited to see something other than carnations or sweet peas being successful!  My Bells of Ireland are struggling – sad but true!

Another plant I’ve never heard of, don’t even really know how to pronounce, but….I’m excited to try them!

We had a wonky day on Saturday, and kind of a late start on Sunday due to my laziness, so not a huge amount was done on the greenhouse; it’s a bit of a trick to learn how to work with new materials too, so there was a learning curve that Joe feels confident it will go a bit faster next weekend – as long as I’m not lazing around 😉

It’s looking great, I’m super excited to start moving the seeds into the green house.  I think I might end up being a bit like Carolee over at herbal blessings, but she has a ton more flats than I do – her qualifier to finding a place for a flat is that it’s just a level surface! That’s what happens when your a retired pro grower!  Next weekend will be super busy, hopefully my new seeds will be in; I have a lot of catch up to do!  But, I’m not sure where I’m going to be putting everything!!!!  I have lights & heat mats, now I just need to find a flat space – possibly on top of the freezer 🙂 and another table in the garage….

Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you again soon!