I started all my seeds on March 29, which turned out to be a month to early for my zuchini, crookneck and yellow squash. The plants were huge and already starting to form flowers by the end of April.
I had planned to start them in the basement, where it is consistently 57-61 degrees, and I was going to put the ones requiring a higher temp on heat mats. But I didn’t order a heat mat before I started the seeds, then I got worried they would rot before I could track one down or order one. I stashed them on top of my computer cpu, which is in a little cubby with a door, under my desk. Worked like a charm! My office is on our upper floor, and it’s always warm in that room. The cpu cubby stayed a consistent 70-72 degrees, so the seeds all started quickly. Even the echinacea, which can be very slow, only took 10 days, which seemed like forever in comparison with the others.
Once they were started though, and in the basement under the lights, all of the ‘warm’ seeds–echinacea, all of the herbs and the roma tomatoes–have just been sluggish. I guess 60 degrees just isn’t warm enough for them. It’s been very warm this weekend–in the high 80s–and I’ve moved all of my plants out on to our back deck. It meant doing a lot of shuffling to keep them out of the wind and the roasting late afternoon sun, but it seems like the ‘warm’ seeds have perked up. I might try leaving them on our east-facing front porch all this week, and see how they do.
I really want to create a sort of shade grove on the south side of our backyard. We planted a variegated Silver Maple late last summer, and it even came back this spring! The next one I want is a Autumn Purple Ash tree…in the fall, the leaves almost look like watercolors, with yellow, purple and red on the same leaf. About $65 for a #7 tree at Caras.
