Seedlings - the promise of things to come

We have been busy.

We have been sick.

We have been replacing the floors in our home.

We have been surviving...just.

But our little seeds that we planted on the 25th August are doing so well. For most of their first week I had to keep them indoors on a table under a sunny window - although the sun hid for a lot! There was too much rain and the rain would have washed the soil away. So we tenderly nurtured then for a week and a bit then on Thursday I set them up outside again where they can get sun for about 3/4 of the day.

There is nothing like watching their little stems and leaves push up out of the soil. There is a promise that seems to come with that saying: "I will produce food!"

Once the seeds are sown, the care of them is pretty simple. Make sure the soil stays moist until the shoot, then water as needed - do not let the soil dry out. Make sure they have sufficient sun everyday and are protected from cats (read this post :) and dogs, little hands, too much water (as in rain) or drying out.

When the first pair of true leaves show up, you can prepare your garden beds where they will be transplanted, but for tomatoes you will want to repot them in a larger pot, putting the stem just a little deeper than before.

This will need to happen for tomatoes 2 or 3 times and it makes the plant form a strong stem and root ball. Only then will you plant them out. I will cover planting out in the next post.

And around our little farm in the city here are some other happenings...

Broad beans harvested by the basket!

Seed potatoes ready to be planted

Cavalo Nero (Kale) in soups and quiche

Spring sprung and the figs are here!

1 of the 2 beautiful lemons we have :)

Worm compost ready for use

That's all folks! How things going with your spring garden preparation?