It's SPRING! Time for seedlings

Tiny seedlings emerging in my Jiffy "mini-greenhouse"

Seedlings of all sizes and varieties in my kitchen under florescent lighting.

It's SPRING! Yay!  But just outside of Flagstaff, AZ, at 6500 ft and on the windy side of the "Peaks" means starting plants inside.  But what is one to do when no greenhouse exists?  A folding workbench under florescent lights, baby...well, that's the theory anyways.  This is totally an experiment!

I've been gardening at this locale for nine years, but I have never successfully started more than one, lone tomato plant.  After a seminar given by a Flagstaff Master Gardener this year at the Flagstaff Home and Garden Show, I was feeling brave enough to attempt the tips given about tomatoes.

I've started three varieties each of tomatoes and peppers.  Tomatillos, Tigerella, Stupice (pronounced Stupitchka) and Jalapeno, Anaheim, and California Wonder (a bell pepper type).  Since the last frost date for Flagstaff is generally accepted as June 15th, but plants can be put out mid to late May, I started them at the end of March to give them a full six weeks to sprout and develop into lovely little seedlings before putting them outside.

I've also started a melon called Jenny Lind and a watermelon called Golden Crown, along with some Arnica (a medicinal herb).  We'll see if I've bitten off more than I can chew in the experimental gardening category!  As of this writing, my seedlings are about 2 weeks away from being placed outside.  I'm actually a little behind on setting out my Wall-o-Waters (guidelines on the packaging suggest 4-5 weeks before planting), but the weather has been unseasonably warm this year, so I think we'll be ok.  Goal for this week is to get the Wall-o-Waters and soaker hoses placed, and hopefully my wind protection/heat insulators (this year's will be leftover panels from the siding on our steel shop building).  Next week I'll start hardening off the seedlings, hopefully to have them in the ground by mid-May.

A second set of seedlings will be started this week.  I had to break them into two categories so that I would have enough space underneath the lights for budding plants!  This second batch will be more herbs and the companion flowers that I want to plant between my veggies to help them ward off insects and disease.  Marigolds for the corn, and petunias for the tomatoes.

Gardening is always an adventure.  I hope for success, but in the failures, there are lessons learned that I can apply to next season.  The lack of organic matter in the soil I have on my property and the high altitude mix of hot sun and chilly nights (not to mention the incredibly short growing season) make gardening around here a real challenge sometimes, but if it was easy, where would the fun be in THAT? ;-)