I started some herb seeds in a mini Jiffy greenhouse and some directly in the earthbox. Not completely scientific, but I'm no scientist, I just work with scientists. Sorry there's no sense of scale for today's photos. The size of the hole cut into the mulch cover for every item is roughly 3.5 inches square.
First up, stevia. In the past week, the wee sprout went from first true leaves to 6 leaves! I sowed 4 seeds in two mini jiffy pods. One pod has sprouted nothing...yet. The other has the big fella but there is also a new set of leaves emerging. The instructions say not to thin so I won't. I hope the room is warm enough for this plant, which is a tropical plant from Peru.
I'm pretty sure these are parsley, sown directly in the Earthbox. I didn't soak these seeds overnight, as instructed. When I realized that, I soaked then sowed a set of 4 parsley seeds in a mini jiffy pod and it has sprouted parsley babies. Anyway, I'll know for certain this is parsley when more leaves come it. I did thin these a little today, since they are getting leggy and not adding leaves. I hope they'll be ok.
This is clearly coriander. Also sown directly into the Earthbox. I'm not sure you can see it here, but some of the leaves still have the seed pod stuck to it. I also thinned the coriander by a couple sprouts. As with the parsley, I panicked that it wasn't going to sprout and sown a set in a mini jiffy pod.
The basil. I couldn't wait for more leaves to develop. It's just so cute! The basil seeds were sown in two jiffy pods. One has emerged and the other has some that look like they are trying to emerge.
I'm also growing spearmint. Allegedly tough to grow from seed, but that is not keeping me from trying. Being a mint, this is not going into the Earthbox herb garden. To contain it, the spearmint was sown into a large recycled Nancy's yogurt tub, with holes poked into the bottom for drainage. It's certainly taking it's time to grow. The mint was sown the same day as the stevia. You can barely see the sprearmint babies, but I did see three more sprouts today, so it's making progress.
The other herbs to join the above are German Chamomile, which are currently in jiffy pods, and cuttings of rosemary and sage.
Lastly, the deck Earthbox. I sowed the radishes last Sunday. Since then, it's been rainy, sunny, snowy, windy and cold. Oh right, it's spring in Seattle. With the crazy weather and the bird songs I've been hearing in the mornings, I was beginning to think the peas were a bird snack or frozen to death. The peas were sown President's Day Weekend and emerged in this past week. I planted 4 seeds in two sections, one in each corner of each square. As can be seen below, three have emerged in one section and two have emerged in the other section. It seems snow peas like to be crowded, so they won't be thinned.
So, that's all the garden news for now. I'll post more pics after the next plant growth spurt. Happy crafting!
