Hardening Off

After a very dry and warm January, we had started a ton of seeds inside the kitchen. It was a fairly safe assumption that February would continue the same weather pattern as January. Damn was I wrong! February brought more than eight inches of rain. So my little younglings sat inside, growing too tall and lanky to be of much use. There were a few sunny days in the middle of the rain, so some of the lettuce and tomatoes that I started made it out into the garden and are hanging on for dear life. Unfortunately, most of the indoor tomatoes are useless, and all of the carrots are. Boo.

There has to be a joke somewhere about the vegan who can't grow his own food.

So here we are today. Thursday, which is supposed to be the last crappy day for a while. It's time for the remaining younglings to get some outdoor lovin'. What I have left are two bell peppers that I started from my own seeds, a rose bush that came from our rose hips, and one lanky-ass cherry tomato. Luckily I still have a bunch of leftover seeds to start directly outside, but I told myself that this was the year I wasn't going to wait until the last minute. Mother Nature really has it in for me...

The sun is out as we speak, and they're soaking up the rays. I fed them some coffee grounds this morning with their water. Hopefully that will help spark some growth in the sun.

I'll keep you posted on their development. If this works like I hope it does, we'll have vegan mexican-food BBQ here at the casa!

You can tell that the rain screwed up my plans. Read How-To Protect Seedlings. The picture is the first tomato I tried to move outside. Yes, it's still alive.