Even though it's February.....

It's time for gardening!!

Yippee!

There may be plenty of snow and ice outside, but this month is the "seed starting" month for me. I have already placed several sizable orders, and am anxiously awaiting their arrival. This weekend, I need to get the hot peppers going-the hotter the pepper, the longer to maturity :) I have some seeds from habenero's that a friend shared, so those are first in. Then, if I have everything planned correctly, will come plantings of vegetables about 12 days apart, starting about mid March.

My dear husband dug out and readied the seed starting rack for me, and I have another here at work, waiting to be put together. Each rack will have 8 shop lights, so 16 flats per rack. We have done a little arranging and the HPS system is ready to go, which should fire up in about three weeks.

From seeds I saved from last year, I also have a mix of tomatoes, plus pumpkins, and something else I have tucked away but can't recall just off hand, lol The only flowers I will be starting myself are some snapdragons and of course, the pansies. I do pretty well with pansies and they tend to have lousy germination, so I am looking forward to the challenge. Sometime over the next week or so, I need to go gather up all my flats and cell packs and get them prepped too.

Last year I did about 70 flats (counting what I kept at home) and the majority went to a friends' nursery/greenhouse over in Palmer for resale. This year, I am hoping to at least double, if not triple that number, with any excess I hope to peddle here at work. Plus I am thinking of building a raised bed at work, just for cabbages ;) It gets a tremendous amount of sun right here, so as long as I can keep them well watered, they should do very very well.

I can't wait to smell DIRT!!