Seedlings Growing...

Back on 18 November I planted my seeds in vermiculite, then transplanted them to the rock growbed.

We have green stuff. I can assure you that every seed has sprouted except for the Spinach, Parsley, and Fennel. Parsley is notoriously late to sprout, and it may be that the individual seeds I put in Spinach and Fennel were not good. We'll give them a week or so.

Last Sunday my youngest went out to the yard and brought me in a few earthworms, which are now somewhere in the rock pile. They were tiny worms - I guess that's what we get for waiting until after Thanksgiving to go scrounging in the garden.

When I first measured my water back in mid-November, I thought I might have "powered through" the ammonia and nitrite peaks, but it seems I spoke prematurely. I've got a healthy batch of nitrite in there now, and the nitrate is higher than it was. I'm sufficiently happy. The seedlings seem OK and the fish seem OK.


I have my growlights on order. Once the lights arrive, I can plant the other half of the grow bed with herbs - ones they sell at the grocery store that have a bit of growth on them.

Speaking of herbs, it was fun hanging with my daughter in Southern Virginia for Thanksgiving. She has a great southern exposure looking out over the Blue Ridge mountains. Here's the view from her front porch:


She has chives, parsley, rosemary, sage and more growing in her front window. It was great grabbing bits of those herbs to use in our Thanksgiving feast. She and her husband are complete foodies.

I'm not a complete foodie, but I do look forward to fresh greens plucked fresh from our year-round garden...