Planting Flats

Flats of Veggies . . .

I have planted 11 flats over the last two weeks.  Not a lot of flats in the grand scheme of things, but each flat has between 72 and 128 plants.  That means I’ve planted somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1000 plants.  That’s a lot of fresh veggies:  butter lettuce, romaine, shallots, and leeks.  And tomatoes and eggplants and peppers!

. . . And Flowers

My daughter gave me a handful of flower packets, varieties that I might not have planted otherwise; things like malva, thunbergia, and red lobelia.  I’ve always loved the old-fashioned flowers:  pansies, snapdragons, petunias and salpiglossis, and I plant them every year.  But it will be nice to have some new ones to add variety and changing colour.

Tomorrow I will plant a flat of oriental greens – tatsoi and three varieties of bok choy.   And one more flat of flowers – mostly petunias and dianthus, the old-fashioned flowers again!

Our short Alberta growing season means that for some plants, starting under lights is the only way to get them to maturity.  March climes are cold here; nothing grows outside, even if you can dig down through the snow.  But one happy exception is sweet peas. I love the look of them as they start to climb the porch railing in early summer.  They smell wonderful, and are so cheerful.  They take a while to come up, but if I can get them into the ground this weekend they will do well.  They will be the first plants I direct seed this year!