Busy Day

Finally started cleaning the basement to start planting seeds soon.  What a MESS it had become!   I could barely move around in parts of it.

Part of it is Loki.  He's an explorer and a real climber.  And when he jumps up of some places, they aren't as sturdy or stable as he thinks.  Appearances can easily deceive a cat.  They think that anything that looks solid is solid.  A stack of stuff can fall over.

So my stack of soil-filled planting trays (ready for planting) wasn't as sturdy as he thought it was.  It all crashed down and spilled the soil out everywhere!  

But most of it is my fault.  Last year, I had a bit of a return to some of the results of falling off the extension ladder.  Sore back, sore knees, some general fatigue.  So when finished with yard/garden work, I tended to put stuff in the basement wherever I could fit.

Well, you run out of space eventually.  Things don't get put away as they should.  Buckets stay a bit dirty.  Seed packets sit out and expire in the warmth (I usually keep them refrigerated).  Fallen soil collects on the floor.  And I fell into a habit of just laying in bed every night for 10 or more hours (mild depression, long covid, aging?) and that didn't leave much awake time for other than basic stuff (and blogging, which I just have to do).

I'd been meaning to tackle cleaning the basement for a month, but there was always something more immediate to do.  The seductive comfort of the heated waterbed, doing laundry, cooking, shopping, etc...  

But I've been getting myself up earlier lately.  Yesterday I made lunch fast, just skimmed the newspaper (must read the editorials and comics), and got myself down the basement.  Where on earth to start?  Well, if I am going to cook dinner, I want the kitchen clean.  I know I will make some mess cooking, but I need it to be clean to start.

So, in the basement, I picked stuff up off the floor, then swept it (I have a shop-vacuum, but I don't like the noise).  And sweeping is rather "meditative".  Quiet, repetitive, calming...  I knew I would mess it up again cleaning higher spots later, but it gave me a good surface to work from.

I mix my own potting soil.  When I run out of it, I mix more.  Which means I have bags of various stuff (peat, sand, compost, lime, fertilizer) left over.  I also used to buy kitty litter in 35# tubs.  They make great containers for the leftovers.  

So I combined 1/2 buckets of some of those and stashed them under my potting bench after sweeping that area clean.  Then brushed the empty buckets clean.  Stacked them up and set them in the garage.  That got me some space.

Collected everything that should really be out in the toolshed and set them next to the patio door for moving there by wheelbarrow (today was for organizing, not moving).  That got me some more space.  Took the trays I grow lettuce and other small crops in and dumped them all into a large shallow bin.  Broke up the chunks of soil and mixed it around with some organic slow-release fertilizer.  Refilled the trays and stacked them aside for planting in a few days.  

That got me the small TV-Tray-size worktable back.  It sits next to the basement refrigerator.  I use it for  holding bulk fresh food while I fit it into the fridge and I also use it for planting.  I was glad to have it available again.

I have a large planting stand, 2'x4' and 5 shelves high.  Bought it many years ago and added fluorescent light fixtures to the underside of each shelf.  Fluorescent lights last well and are energy-efficient, but at 14-16 hours per day, they last only months and even then, they collectively use about 800 watts!  And the fluorescent tubes aren't free either.

So, 1 1/2 years ago, I bought special "grow-light" LED) panels to replace them.  I haven't done that yet.  I need to take all the fluorescent fixtures off and install the LEDs, but I didn't have space (or energy) to do it before.  I am ready to do that now.  The LEDs use 1/4 of the energy and should last many years.  That almost starts to feel like "free", and the seedlings will get better light!  

But it will probably take an entire day to get that done.  I will remove the old fixtures one half-day and install the new ones the next half day.  Because I know my hands/fingers will cramp if I try to do it all in one day (and may anyway in 2 days).  

And I still have to clean the potting table.  The soil from the stacked trays Loki knocked over a couple months ago is still all over it.  The seed packets are still sitting out on the table and are probably useless now.  I have a pile of seed labels that need to be sorted out.  I rinsed out the old 6-pack cells a few days ago, and they are dry and ready to reuse.

Aside from basement-cleaning for planting,  I need to re-order many seeds.  It's a bit late, so some I want will be "out-of stock" now, but that's my fault.  Vegetable seeds will be easier to replace, but flower seeds become unavailable fast.  

But at least I am making some serious progress in the basement.

 

Indoor Seed-Starting

 I got back to planting seeds inside.  Last post, I had cleaned up the spill from "somecat" jumping on the stack of soil-filled trays and knocking half of them over.  What a MESS!

So I took the filled ones and planted 2 trays of seeds.  "Just 2" you ask?  Yeah...

It was all the stuff I had to do before planting them.  Well, if you go to a fast-food place, they don't start preparing for the assembly-line when the store opens.  They have to have everything ready to use for the first customer, right?

I started by sorting out my plant labels (I don't make new ones every year).  First, veggies vs flowers.  Then various types of each.  Flower labels are easy.  Annuals vs perennials.  Then common ones (Marigolds and Zinnias, etc) vs "fancy" (the ones you don't find on Walmart racks).  I bundled the categories with rubber bands.

Then I had to soak some of the filled trays with water.  The dry potting soil I mix myself takes a while to get wet (really).  

Then I had to check my list of starting dates.  I am behind a couple of weeks (as usual).  So I needed to plant seeds that should have been started earliest first.  It is 4 weeks til "last frost date", so I planted the -8 weeks to -6 weeks last night.  And I planted the common ones, just to get back into practice again.

Later today, I will catch up to -4 weeks and be current again.  

After that, I will tackle the more "exotic" flowers.  Those are trickier.  Those seeds can have some real odd requirements.  Some need to be planted deeply, some need to just be sprinkled on the surface.  Some need to be planted in soaked soil and then be left dry for a week.  Some need constant water.  Some need strong light, others want none at first.  Some need cool temps to germinate, others need Summer warmth.

There is a reason those flowers are not "common", LOL!  I move trays around the house a lot.  Some get set above warm floor vents, some get set in the colder garage.  Some get direct light on the planting stand, some have a towel other them for initial darkness.  It takes some time, but it is a hobby and obsessive attention to a hobby is self-justified.  😎

There is a reward though.  The "fancy" ones are fairly cheap as seeds but expensive to buy as seedlings.  And the ones I am trying to grow are ones that support beneficial or lovely insects (butterflies, bees, ladybugs, etc) for food or egg-laying.  And many support hummers and other interesting birds (some migratory).

So tomorrow, more seed-starting.  And some are nearly impossible to grow (for an amateur like me).  I have an order of 38 pollinator and meadow flower plants due to arrive in late April.  Sometimes, you just have to buy what you can't grow.

Starting The Gardening Season

 Every year, I need to reorganize the potting table.  It gerts clutterred...

Before:

Middle:  

Done:

The barrel is filled with sterile potting mix I make.  The stack of trays on the left are filled with potting soil ready for seed-planting.  The buckets below are filled with leftover vermiculite. perlite, peat. 

I have a lot of less-than-usual flower seeds this year (meadow and pollinator flowers), so I will be starting more than usual.  But at least I have lots of planting trays with good soil.