April 12, Tuesday

Today I count 6 tomato sprouts in 6 pods, plus 1 pepper sprout (from pepper seeds purchased in 2009!).

April 11, Monday

Spied a couple of tomato sprouts:

So I propped open the lid a bit as per last year:

No pepper or eggplant sprouts yet. They took longer last year.

April 10, Sunday

Compost!

My NatureMill automated composter produced its first quart or two of great looking compost from my kitchen scraps. Set the compost outside on a baking sheet to continue curing, or at least drying out, until I get equipment for brewing compost tea. Should be this week.

April 8, Friday

Starting my seeds much later this year. Lethargy rules. Plus, my plants got way too leggy before I could plop them into the garden last year. So, here's my procedure:

1. Place plastic pod trays in sprouting tray.
2. Place peat pods in pod trays:

• 8 tomato pods
• 4 bell peppers
• 4 eggplants

3. Fill sprouting tray with filtered water and wait for peat pods to plump up.

4. Tear back tops of pods and place 2 seeds in each. Cover with just a bit of peat.

5. Cover tray to retain moisture.

6. Light rope light beneath tray for soil warmth.

7. Not sure if I used the grow light at this stage last year. In any case, it's positioned far from the tray on a timer set for 16 hours of light per day.

I'm using seeds I've been storing in the fridge. They're one (tomatoes) and two years old. Let's see what happens.