Last fall, as I looked at my two stunted eggplants struggling to grow, and broccoli flowering in the heat, I came upon a book about "square foot gardening" which explained in detail how to grow vegetables in wood frames. Looking at the results of the "experiment" with the broccoli and and eggplant was pretty discouraging, but even though I knew that I knew nothing, I felt that the fact
that I grew those plants in a container versus sowing in the ground was one thing I had gotten right.
On our half acre sloping lot, the advantages of containers and being able control soil and location
make it the best way to go for a novice like me.
After two weeks. Note the real grow light.
The author,
Mel Bartholomew, was a fantastic salesman for his gardening concepts. Sometime around February, I began thinking about upgrades to this year's garden, and next I knew I was growing seeds indoors. I wasn't sure what was the right time to start, but by the time I could pull the time and initial materials together in mid March, I thought it was already kind of behind schedule. Again, its all an experiment and it doesn't cost anything to fail--right? So I started the seed pallete around March 15, and did a bunch of wacky things no one with real knowledge of plants would do.
To wit:
-Using those blue tungsten "plant" lights with no appreciable lumen
output. Seedlings all came up extremely leggy.
-Mixing too many different kinds of seeds in the same palette. Don't
plant beans in a herb tray.
-Starting early--all seedlings got too big and
had to be continually transplanted.
