Living Space Invaders 2023

I am certain that other gardeners will give witness to the truth that gardening is a year-round endeavor. When I am not turning compost I am browsing seed catalogs or discussing garden improvements with Shawn. Once in a while I idle with an iced tea beside the pond, but even then my brain is noting stuff I want to do or try in our garden.

This bizarre structure resides in our home and inquiring minds may wish to know its purpose.

The invader looks like some type of exotic robot from Planet 313 in the outer reaches of the galaxy. Oh, my. Last year I battled fungus gnats. Are skirmishes with alien pod creatures coming this year? At least I see no strings attached to huge balloons, so perhaps we are safe from strafing by the Air Force.

And now the secret is revealed. We have planted our seeds for the 2023 spring and summer gardens. The final count was 31 different types. Some over-achieving zinnias had popped up by day 3! After 6 days we have the first tomatoes breaking through the soil, and these are exciting developments for avid gardeners.

The wooden frames, shows at maximum height, allow us to lift the flats closer to the grow lights which benefits the seedlings immensely. We can turn the supports on their sides to give us another “setting” as the sprouts reach higher. Finally we can remove the supports altogether if the plants grow tall enough.

In Zone 7 we are about eight weeks away from our “Last Frost Date” so our goal is to get the plants started indoors, move them to the outdoors in early April to harden them off, and return them to the garage as needed on cold nights until we actually plant near the beginning of May. We’ve learned that starting seeds earlier than March gives the plants more time to grow leggy and become problematic.

Timing is crucial in the garden.

And where is all this growing taking place? Would you believe in our living room?

We have three IKEA shelves, four shelves per unit, with three-foot grow lights mounted below each shelf.  Each shelf can support two trays with 18 cells each (3 inch squares). Each IKEA unit has its own timer to control day and night, and we’ve found a soil available at Home Depot which has few fungus gnats to pester us as we read or watch TV.

Some of that shelf space belongs to Shawn’s normal collection of indoor plants (including her orchids), but in this crucial time she crowds things together to make bounty happen.

A seven-foot folding table resides in the dining room to accommodate the coleus cuttings from last fall which have already become full-blown ready-for-the-garden plants. Shawn will take additional cuttings of her favorites to root and grow in the coming weeks. I’ve shared images of that setup in previous posts (see Propagate Your Own Coleuses).

By starting our own seeds we can experiment with plant varieties that are not available at the garden center. And we can greatly increase the number of plants in our garden.

These are our zinnia hopefuls for 2023. I cannot wait to “Zinderella Red” in full bloom.

When you love gardening you just have to plan, scrunch up, and make some room.

Note: The sweet gum balls have nothing to do with the story. I just liked the photo.