Starting seedlings: March 1 2022

 

I've been seriously missing the cute greenhouse I built at the Ft. Scott Community Garden. It was my favorite place to hang out- warm with the smell of damp soil. Seeing the new little seedlings emerge was just THE BEST. I built it from a kit purchased from Santa Barbara Greenhouses with money donated by Salesforce. 

Last season I started seeds in front of a south-facing window in my partner's office. But there is a couch there now and he didn't love sharing space with the occasional fungus gnat. 

So this year in the garage I set up a borrowed grow light and a heating mat I found at a 'free store' up the street from my house. And unbelievably, the first seedlings emerged in THREE days! That's crazy fast. I'm not quite as worried as I was about dithering to get started (ok, also I was super busy with school work). After initial success with radicchio, beets, peas, cauliflower, and others, I started another tray with tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini. Can't wait until it's time to out plant!

Spring Native Plant ID class at Merritt

Every Wednesday our class has a field trip to learn a new slate of 12-15 native plants. So far we've only visited Tilden Botanical Garden- a magical place in the Berkeley hills not too far from my house. I love seeing the changes there each week. Here are some highlights:

Merritt College Landscape Design

In addition to working in my garden, I have a few private garden clients and have been taking classes at Merritt College in their terrific Landscape Horticulture department. So far I'm in the Intro Landscape Design class, learning the software program SketchUp Pro, and taking Freehand Drawing for Landscape Designers (trying to learn how to create drawings that don't look like a 3rd grader did them...it's slow going :).

Here are some examples of what we do in class: