It makes us feel so much more like doing stuff outside! The baby goats are both now eating like little pigs. After four days of struggling with the buckling Domingo, one night, he finally was watching the doeling, Willow, suck down the last of her bottle with lots of sucking noise and you could see the lightbulb click on in his face. He walked up and started bumping her out of the way, grabbed the nipple and sucked with all his might! Hooray! I was about at wit’s end with him. I was just getting enough milk down him to keep him alive but not much more. After that night, he’s been taking a whole bottle three times a day with lust and would eat more if I would give it to him. (It’s always a good idea to leave babies a little hungry; they don’t get diarrhea that way, which could kill them.)

Both baby goats are now eating like little pigs!

Our seedlings are growing like weeds. I’ll be starting to transplant them soon. I do know I won’t be using Jiffy pellets again. I did use them, as usual, for some of the peppers and Pro-Mix in four packs for the rest. The plants in the Pro-Mix are twice or more the size of the ones in Jiffy pellets. And nothing else is different. That was an unplanned experiment!

Our seedlings are doing great; time to transplant soon.
Will is finishing up the framing of the greenhouse. Here, he’s installing the sills for the patio windows between the studs.

Will is continuing to work on the greenhouse. The work did slow down when we got all that rain and snow. Nine days, total, of nasty weather. We’re so glad the sun’s out and the temperature is warming up some more. It won’t be long before we’re gardening outside again. — Jackie

24 COMMENTS

  1. I planted a little too early and the tomatoes are huge already… the Bill Beans think it is full-on summer in my south window. Can’t move in the front room for all the jungle there. I think it will be another six weeks before they can all be put outside here in eastern Washington. The Hopi squash is trying to trip me up! Gardening is throwing me a learning curve.

    • It’s SO tempting to plant those seeds early because we get cabin fever in the winter. But it pays to hold off and wait awhile even if it drives you crazy. It’s hard to set out those big plants and not have them retarded in their growth. Get them outside in a semi-protected area daily when the temperatures are above 50 degrees F. It helps grow them stockier. If you must, you can transplant into larger containers, which is better than having them get root-bound.

    • I just did the pellets because it was easier; then I transplant into the cups. No more. It’ll be the 4 packs, then into 4″ pots and Styrofoam cups.

  2. Your broccoli seeds came up in 2 days, cabbage and cauliflower in 3 days. That is with a heat mat, but I’m very pleased.

  3. Quit using any of the small planting mediums especially for peppers that we always start early
    Plant early in two inch plastic pots in Merical-Gro
    (Pricy but it works !) then into four inch pots
    Our weather , which is snowing now , is never dependable often even makes us transplant tomatoes up to six inch pots before they can go into the ground in our often short growing season
    A lot of years our greenhouse is really crammed before we dare plant outdoors

    • It’s the room factor that made me go smaller; we have thousands of plants in our living room and sun room right now and would never have room enough for larger pots. I had BAD luck using Miracle-Gro to start my seeds so I switched to Pro-Mix and have been very happy. We can’t plant outside, even in the hoop houses, until late May. Unprotected plants, June 14th or so.

  4. Yay sun! Mother Nature is getting the hint.
    Yep, jiffy pellets are slooooooooow. I still don’t have a second set of leaves. What a waste. Oh well, live and learn.

    • Give them a shot of Miracle-Grow fertilizer; that often helps get them moving. Dad always used to say “Too soon old; too late smart!”. We always learn along the way.

  5. Where do you get the Pro-Mix? I used Jiffy pellets and Flexiplugs with mixed results. The peppers are really slow growing.

    • Lamancha Lady, That’s something I’ve learned in the last year and from reading blogs like this. Peppers are very slow to germinate.

      • They’re germinating fast enough & then they just sit there. Like they need a boost of something. 5 weeks after planting they’re just starting the second set of leaves. I put them into pots with miracle grow & they start to grow better.

        • Peppers are slow growing to a stage, then they shoot up. Give them a weekly dose of Miracle-Gro fertilizer and you’ll see improvement. I get Pro-Mix at our local nursery or Menard’s.

  6. Here is Iowa we have a coming week of clouds and low temps so I don’t dare plant yet, boo hop!

  7. Your plants look great. Today I re-potted 42 tomatoes. I noted that some of my plants look wilty and slightly yellow. Then I noted gnats-ugh. I think I have fungus gnats and they are the culprit. I too use Pro-Mix. I have never had them before. Any suggestions? Some say vinegar and water with a few drops of dish soap. My little goat buddies -Ralph and Streaker (the grandkids named them) are weaned and follow me around wherever I go. They are fun. Both are little bucks soon to be neutered ( by banding). We still have frost here at night but I’m am planting onions and doing some tillage. It is nice to see the sun.

    • That sure makes me feel great. We sell seeds but the reason we started the seed business in the first place was to get great seeds out to wonderful people.

      • Same here! My tomato starts from your seeds are twice the size of starts from others. Very pleased with all the starts this year from your seeds!

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