More seedlings!

It's been a busy week in the seedlings-gardening department!

The last of the seedlings are starting to come up. I'm going to plug the Incredible Seed Company (incredibleseeds.ca) again because all of them are at a 100% germination rate! Not only that, but the seedlings look incredibly vigorous. Overnight they went from barely peeking, to being 2 inches tall, with fully spread first leaves. Craziness.

I hope they stay that healthy, because I'm beginning to worry about my tomatoes. Not that they're looking unhealthy, quite the opposite! I replanted all the tall and gangly-looking seedlings this morning to get them deeper into the pots. A few had very thick root balls, even beginning to be a bit root-bound. Hopefully I've averted a crisis by unpotting them, then planting them deeper in the same pots. I don't have anymore room under lights for bigger pots (except for the very biggest plant) and it's still much too cold outside. Needless to say my fingers are crossed for a very warm spring! Next year I'll plant them later.

Oh well, the good news is that it's only about half the tomato plants that have just taken off, the rest are growing at a more normal rate. I think I figured out why - the timer those lights were on wasn't set to 'timer', so the lights were on 24/7! Now that I've got them back on a more regular schedule I'm hoping they'll settle down a bit.

I'm also beginning to plan ahead for a bigger tomato crop this year. (Although since last year's 'crop' consisted of one big tomato and enough cherry tomatoes I could eat one a day for about 2 weeks that shouldn't be tough, lol). I think the big difference will be determinate vs indeterminate, and where i'm planning on planting them.

I've got plans to get a big load of rotted manure to finally (fingers crossed!) make my front bed an actual viable planting location. Since it's about the perfect place for tomatoes - other than the currently abysmal soil condition - I'm hoping things will do better this year.

In outside garden news there's a few good signs. The rhubarb that I've sadly mistreated the past few years (moving it twice in one year, the year after I transplanted a beat up rootball may have been a bit much) but it's up and looking more vigorous than ever. I'm debating putting a bucket over top of it, to see if I can force some nice big sweet stalks, but I may just leave it to grow this year. I am regretting building out catio (cat-patio) around it though...I wanted that extra foot for the cats to play in, and I didn't want to move the sad rhubarb for a THIRD time...but it'll be awfully awkward to protect it from the cats and then try to harvest it in a 4 foot high enclosure. Picture me constantly battling cats, hitting my head, and wielding a knife. Hmmm....If it does well this year maybe I'll split it and replant half in an easier to harvest location. I'll leave some to grow big for the kitty boys as a great bit of shade.

I've also been given hope by a few little bits of hopeful green. My chives, the ones that have never really taken off, are sprouting! This is the first year they've come up anywhere near this early, and I think they've already got more shoots this year than they had all last summer! Sure, they're small shoots right now, but they're there and that gives me hope for a great chive-season :)

I'm beginning to wonder if I didn't kill the asparagus though. I got a few plants for free (a 'come dig me up' ad on kijiji) and planted them in a sunny spot in the front yard. No shoots yet. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed, but I thought they were supposed to come up nice and early? I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Last thing, I promise ;) its nice and sunny, my cloche is up, I've got black landscape fabric warming another strip of ground...I'm planting today! I'll be putting in radishes, spinach, and Swiss chard. Yay! :D

Overall...I'm SO ready for spring to get here!

Pics:
Green things!

The abused rhubarb

Cloched and covered rows

Sprouts

Seedlings

Jitxu helping with the cloche

Kitty prints - a definite sign of spring