seedling front

Snow drifts down outside and I do silly things like pot up seedlings. Too early still, but as long as they live I will keep these going. I have remaining from the first foolish sowing a bunch of vigorous Pea plants

a handful of young Dill

three Broccoli

a few of the tiniest Celery seedlings

and dozens of Lettuce. I forgot to mark the trays, so I don't know which are what variety of Lettuce.

Yesterday I moved the Broccoli and Lettuce seedlings out of their trays. As usual, I put them into cardboard toilet-paper rolls. Stuffed each with soil through cupped hands, made a hole down the center with an old chopstick

Gently wedge the biggest seedlings out with an old butter knife

Always careful to lift the baby plants by their leaves, as the stems and roots are too delicate.

Lower them into the individual cardpot holes, then firm in with fingertip. Bury their leggy stems entire.

Add a bit more soil on top to fill it up.

This time I also took the trouble to clean out the trays the cardpots sit in with a vacuum nozzle- I always spill soil down there and don't like how it looks dirty. Plus, I plan to water these from the bottom, and don't want it a muddy mess. You can also see here how they're secured with a rubber band around each group of cardpots- sometimes when I go to move the trays they can tip, top-heavy; this makes them steady.

The first time you always have to water from above, to settle the plants in. After the first watering, I'll just add water into the tray below. I've been doing sub-irrigated watering with the Peas...

I don't know if you can tell, but these seedlings are sitting in the plastic container a stick of shortening came in. They're exactly the right size for three cardpots, and fit nicely on even narrow windowsills. It's the only reason I buy shortening in those premeasured sticks, it's cheaper in the bigger tubs but I like these trays for cardpots. (I don't cook a lot with lard, it's mostly for the occasional pie crust).

I now have three Broccoli and nineteen Lettuce seedlings in cardpots.

They're all nestled into the plastic "greenhouse" box with the other young plants, so they can go outside during the day for winter sun.

It was nice to actually get my hands dirty!