Finally, actual "dirt"

On Wednesday, my order from Baker Creek arrived. They were out of stock on a few items: the Little Gem lettuce, Delikatesse cucumber, and Sugar Snap peas. I'll have to get at least the last two from another source. I haven't quite decided where, yet; I'm trying to avoid possible GMO seeds, so buying them at a local shop is pretty iffy. Then again, I don't want to pay another shipping charge. I'll have to look into my options a little more. Because of the delays in getting my order to me (caused by snow and ice, of which there's plenty here), Baker Creek sent an extra packet of seeds - a tomato variety called Furry Yellow Hog. I have to find somewhere to raise a plant of those, because come on, really? It's like a bacon plant! Only tomatoes!

At any rate, on Wednesday night we went to Lowe's again and I bought the shop light fixtures for the plant stand, along with both cool and warm fluorescent bulbs. In total the cost was about $32; not bad, and the long life of fluorescent bulbs should mean I won't have to buy any again for a couple of years, at least. With luck the fixtures themselves will last indefinitely. I also picked up a bag of seed starting mix (sterile and soil-less) as well as some peat planting cubes. I'd been planning to reuse plastic tubs from cream cheese, sour cream, and the like but our usage of those has apparently declined because I didn't have nearly enough. It was another $5 for those items.

My thoroughly wonderful husband helped me to finish assembling the stand and put the lights on it; it's just much easier sometimes with two sets of hands. After an inordinate amount of fiddling and guessing, we reached an agreement with the electrical outlets in the room and got everything in place. I do love living in old houses but one of my major complaints about them is the fact that there are never enough outlets for a family that uses as many electronic devices as we do. Maybe that's supposed to be some kind of sign to cut back, but I like my internet very much, thanks.

Here's the setup:


Very late that night, actually about 5am on Thursday, I planted the onion seeds and some herb seeds. They're actually inside those black plastic seed trays in the photo; they're covered right now as they don't need light to germinate and I'm trying to keep the moisture in since, with forced air heat, it gets pretty dry in here. I'll take a picture of the seedlings when there's something to show.

I guess the fact that I have all the equipment and seeds now means I need to make my actual seed starting schedule soon, hm?