It was another week of seedling starting madness here at Lowe Bridges Farm. On top of taking care of my Daddy, the nine pets, and the house, the seed starting and seed tending endeavors continue.

Thankfully, my Lupus flare seems to finally be over! I’m really hoping I didn’t just hex myself by saying that, but it is. I know there will be future flares…some not as bad, others worse than this last one…but that is just the reality of my life.

…but I’m not here to complain.

So, I work around flares and what-not. I have sooo many seedlings that have grown into full-blown plants now! I’ve been moving these babies into bigger pots as needed, but keeping up with that has become a full-time job!

Many of these plants need to get moved outside onto my imaginary sundeck herb garden…I call it imaginary because while the deck itself exists, it has not been transformed to fit my herb garden needs…but hopefully, that is going to happen this week!

Other plants need to get moved out into the garden. The tomatoes aren’t big enough yet…but those peppers sure are!

Unfortunately, it’s still not the right time to plant them outdoors yet. With my luck, a freeze would happen the same week I did that…so I’m not going to do that. If all goes well, we will have an abundance of peppers this year.

We also planted some varieties we have never grown before, so I’m really interested to see how those turn out…and more importantly how they will taste! I’ve tasted these varieties that were purchased from the grocery store, but I know from personal experience that nothing tastes the same as the foods you grow yourself. They are the best! This year, we planted some Arbol Grandes, mini-sweets, and lemon-jalapeño, along with all the usual peppers (various bells, bananas, jalapeños and chilis.)

We also planted some Calabrese peppers, which are used to make calabrian sauce – which is to die for. So, I planted a LOT of those!

Of course the tomatoes will not be outproduced by those peppers..but they were planted a week after the peppers and aren’t very big yet.

They will get there though. They are all crowded up right now, but as soon as they all get their second set of true leaves, I will divide them up and replant them. The tomatoes in this picture are NOT all the tomatoes we have planted! We have about four more of those little planters stuffed full of tomatoes. We planted the usual tomato seeds this year…Big Boy, Roma, Vine and Cherry.

Then there are those plants that just wanted to jump out of their cribs, skip the toddler bed, and move right into the queen size bed. Yes, I am weird. Yes, I am proud of it. And yes, I do think of my plants as babies.

They start out as seeds in the tiny seed starting pot, get born (sprout), and live in their tiny little pot (the bassinet) until they are big enough for the crib (the next size pot). They usually outgrow the crib fairly fast and graduate to the toddler bed when they have four to six true leaves.

When they look like they are about to jump out of the toddler sized pots, they get moved to the queen sized bed, which is a big pot. They live there forever if they are herbs (unless they were born specifically to be a companion plant), but if they are outside plants (vegetables), they may bypass the queen sized bed and move on to the final bed…the Kind Sized outdoor garden beds, if the timing and weather allow for such as move.

Yes. I do tell them happy birthday when they sprout, and cry tears of pride when they graduate to their final growing place. I love my plants…I like to think they love me too.

So, my week was all about seedlings, and project planning…because THIS WEEK, my Jeremy Lowe is on Vacation for three weeks, and I have several projects lined up, including:

• Turn the deck into my potted herb garden..it’s gonna be beautiful!
• Get that 4×6 shed put together, then modify it to be the coop/brooder for the chicks that are being shipped in just nine short days.
• Build the chickens run…because sadly, we can’t free range here because, well….DAISY –>
• Fix my bathroom sink upstairs so it stops leaking and becomes usable again.
• Do my garden gate arches and beds.
• Build the extra beds we are adding to our garden this year and get them filled.
• Set up our watering system in the garden.
• Help plant potatos in grow bags (if they get here in time).
• Plant my fruit trees.

I’ll have lots to talk about in the next issue. Don’t miss it!

Till Next Week,