Frugal Friday: Garden Update

A month has gone by since my last gardening post, so I thought it was time to write an update about how it's all going.  As I explained in my previous post, I had planted various seeds in three peat pellet trays and many of them had begun to sprout.  I was happily watching and watering them each day and they were coming along nicely.  After a few weeks, however, I realized the flaw in my plan.  My plants were growing quickly, but unfortunately the weather here in Saskatchewan was not warming up as much as I had hoped.  Many of my plants were getting too big for the tiny peat pellets I had started them in, so I had to transplant into larger containers.  No big deal right?  Except that there are only three windows in my house that really let in enough sunlight to keep plants alive.  By the time I had transplanted all of my plants into larger containers, they were everywhere!  Every window that got even a little sunlight had a chair or table perched next to it covered in plants.  This is not an ideal situation for a family with two curious and sometimes mischievous toddlers wandering around.  I kept waiting for the weather to warm up so that I could start hardening the plants off and moving them outdoors, but the weather has remained very windy and quite chilly so far.  It was even too cold to leave them in the garage overnight and put them outdoors during the day.  Today I finally decided it was warm enough to start, so I rigged up some platforms on the wheelbarrow and the kids wagon so that I could place all of the trays of plants on top and then roll them in and out of the garage quickly and easily.  I am praying that in a few weeks time the weather will get more temperate and I will be able to plant into the ground and take it from there.  Wish me luck as I attempt to keep numerous plants alive through an unusually cold Saskatchewan spring, in a house that gets very little direct sunlight though the windows.

My plants grow sideways in an effort to get to the sun ;(

Rather than buy pots for transplanting, I took my mom's suggestion of using old fruit containers.  They are perfect because many have holes already that are great for drainage.  Also, they come with free fruit, haha. 

I snip the mesh bag off of the pellet and then pop it into the dirt.  This lettuce container had no drainage holes, so I used a knife to add some.  

My easy-roll hardening off mechanism.  Quote from P: "Oh NO!  Wagon!!"