Greenhouse activities = good times!

Seed packets with petunia seeds. Seed packets usually contain helpful information to aid in successful growing.

These are in an airtight container to prevent moisture from getting to the seeds. They are also covered in clay as they are extremely small. A rather large packet for a few seeds.

We will plant one yellow clay coated seed in one cell of this 50 cell tray. Tiny seeds will grow into beautiful flowers.

A lady bug found Ethan's shirt in the greenhouse.

My niece Anna and her youngest, Louise, planting seeds. Louise is making the holes with a pencil. Anna is expecting her 4th in April. :)

My sister, Anna's mom, just got her new doggy today! Cody is sitting on Louise and tickling her. Lisa is nearby as Cody meets all of us.

Basil for planting in the greenhouse is growing well and smells delicious. We will have a bed of basil growing all summer in the greenhouse. Basil loves heat.

The first Golden Beet is poking up.

These Alyssum seeds are the little yellow/orange seeds on the surface. They need light to germinate. Also, they can't dry out or they will die before they germinate.

This is the first planting of Alyssum that was planted 3 weeks earlier than the seeds in the previous photo.

Red celery on the left, green celery on the right. They both start out green. It will be interesting to see when the red variety starts showing red.

Peonies are just starting to poke their reddish stems through the soil.

Newly seeded flats in the foreground. These are on the propagating mats for bottom heat. Not all seeds like bottom heat. A few flats are actually outside for a couple weeks to "chill" as it gives them the sensation of a winter.

These are beets planted two weeks ago. Unless specifically noted on the packets, beets are a seed that actually is a cluster of seeds in one. Hence, more than one coming up in a cell.

Two different varieties of cabbage in this flat.

Lobelia has tiny seeds, really tiny. Several seeds are intentionally sown in each cell. These take about 20 days to germinate. So we don't give up on them, we put a tag in the flat to remind us. Also notice the one rouge, tall plant in the middle? It appears a cabbage seed has found a home here. 

Two varieties of kale await planting outside.

The two different plantings of Alyssum, the back left flat was seeded 3 weeks after the back right flat.

Slicing cucumbers and in the background, tomatoes that will be planted, grown and harvested in the greenhouse. These are started much earlier than our field cucumbers and tomatoes.

Clear domes cover trays of seeds to help prevent them from drying out. Domes also help keep the temperature more constant.

Dad 's lemon trees in the greenhouse are covered with fruit and blossoms.

Their flowers are very fragrant.

From the middle of the greenhouse, Lisa is planting at our workbench. 

The four inch pots have 25 onions per pot.

These are onions just coming up. They were planted earlier.

Lisa gently watering the freshly seeded flats.

As things grow and grow, we will transplant them into larger pots. We will also keep seeding more vegetables and flowers as spring draws closer.

Family, flowers, kitties, oh my!

Well aged horse manure from a nearby stable. The garden will love this!

The greenhouse cucumber seeds that we planted last Tuesday were enjoyed by the mice in the greenhouse. Bummer.

Cuttings (left to right) from eucalyptus, pineapple sage and "Mable Gray" a scented geranium. Bottom heat and moisture retaining potting medium will help them root.

Kale starts that were seeded 7 days ago. Yippie!

The greenhouse cucumbers the mice DIDN'T find. These were seeded 7 days ago. They jumped up out of the potting medium. A few basil seeds were dropped in the lower left hand corner. We will move them to their own space when they get a little older and have their true leaves. 

Greenhouse tomatoes came up quickly, too. All of the cucumbers and tomatoes start out on a propagating mat to provide the bottom heat they love. Once they are "up" Florencio transfers them off to "grow on" in the normal heat of the greenhouse. They only need bottom heat to get started.

We always get a kick out of the onions when they pop up. They look like hair pins :) They don't enjoy the bottom heat so are started off the propagating mats.

Climbing peas have started, too. They like the cool, so no bottom heat for them. They will grow fast in the greenhouse and will be planted outside soon.

A close up of all the baby leaves of the climbing shelling peas. We start them in the greenhouse so the seeds don't rot in the cool, damp soil this time of year.

Pumpkin seeds we saved from last year's pumpkins drying out. The pumpkins were stored in the greenhouse and lasted well. These are from two different pumpkins. The top seeds are from one Cinderella type pumpkin and the bottom seeds are from one Dill's Atlantic Giant pumpkin. At the correct time they will be started in the greenhouse and then will be moved out to the garden.

Anna and her son plant more onions. Anna placed 25 holes in each pot with a pencil. Then he drops the small black seeds in the holes one at a time. Patience young grasshopper.

He has really good dexterity with these small onion seeds.

Once home from kindergarten, my great niece brings me a beautiful geranium flower that was blooming in the greenhouse. Love this!

Today we planted many perennial flowers. This is what came out of a packet of seeds. Small and not very many. Sometimes we plant with tweezers.

Lisa has very legible handwriting. The tags include what is planted in the flat, sometimes "days to germination" and then the date we seeded the item on the back. Some items germinate and show growth in 2-3 days, some take up to 28-30 days. We remind ourselves the ones with a long time to germinate so we don't give up on them. 

Salvia seeds, a few per packet and not very big. Notice on the tag it will take 15-21 days to germinate. 

Lisa is planting these, they look like sesame seeds. They are a flower called "stock" that is very fragrant. We use these little dipping dishes to be able to keep track of the seeds and be able to pick them up somewhat easier.

We are trying to add to our lavender garden. Notice they don't like to be covered with soil AND don't want to have a humidity dome on them. They are pretty tough to germinate. Wish us luck!

Not a bad way to spend a day. Family, flowers, seeds and a warm location. Ahhhh.

50 cell flats that Florencio has filled with pre-moistened sterile germination mix. The stacked ones are waiting for us to fill. Along the far wall of the greenhouse are newly seeded flats, some with humidity domes so they don't dry out. Next to the green hose are items that have come off the propagating mats to their cooler location.

Supposedly there are 20 seeds in this little packet. They are coated in a light colored clay so they aren't so TINY. Jeez.

Lobelia seeds are very tiny, too. Notice the packet states there are 1000 seeds in this envelope. Wow. Thank goodness we plant several together. Focus, focus, focus is needed to plant these.

The same seeds out of their little packet. Tough to pick these up and control them.

Here are the little basil "escapees" growing in among the greenhouse cucumbers. They all look very happy.

The large leaves are cotyledons or seed leaves. They will wither, turn brown and fall off once the plant has grown. The true leaves are starting to stick up in between the cotyledons. A very good sign!

A flat full of growing onions. These make me smile.

Can you see the little white root in the middle of this cell? The seed is still attached to the top of it and is being pushed up. These seeds were placed on the top of the soil as they need light to germinate. Florencio is good about not letting them dry out because if they do, they die right on the spot. The root just knows which way to grow, down!

We have the doors shut as it is very cold out today. The family kitty can't get in to where our voices are...

She is wandering around on the top of the greenhouse. We are sooo hoping she doesn't poke any holes in the plastic. It is double plastic with a fan blowing air between the two layers for insulating purposes. We don't need any holes.

She has decided to squirm around on her side while on the top. We could hear her purring. We are holding our breath!

She made her way off the roof and we let her in where it is warm. She was much happier and we didn't see any holes in the roof. Dodged one there!