Dibblers and Misters

I started another gardening class tonight. It is mostly made up of people who were in the other class and with the same teacher but, this time its only 4 sessions and all the lessons are very hands on and about starting things from seed. My assigned partner and I planted so many teensy weensy collard green seeds that our hands started to cramp. Anyway, I learned a few things that I did wrong with my attempt at home and I heard about some new tools that I absolutely must have. Here is a short list:

1) Grease Pencil - first you need someting like a popsicle stick to mark your seeds but then you absolutely must have a grease pencil to write on it with because no matter how "permanent" the marker claims to be, after a while in the sun and the rain the writing is sure to disappear. This, according to my teacher is not so with the grease pencil.

2) Dibbler - a golf pencil is what we used but, its basically a thing that makes the little holes to stick the seeds in.

3) Mister- to make sure you give your little seeds a fighting chance you must give them just enough water but, not too much and a mister is the perfect thing for the job. This is especially good for making sure you don't wash the seeds far from where you planted them with a too-powerful stream of water. This happened to me a lot last summer and my plants ended up halfway down the little mounds I had made for them.

4) Soil Thermometer - I am definitely getting one of these. You see, the temperature outside is NOT the same as the temperature of the soil so if you want to be sure you're planting things at the right time you need to take your garden's temperature. I do not care how nerdy this sounds. I am absolutely getting one!

I have been away for the past week so I have a couple of highlights from the time away.

1) Orca the Orchid is still doing really well. All the flowers are open now and I got some orchid food to use when I water.

2) I was visiting a friend in a nearby state and I helped her plant some flowers and herbs (AND STRAWBERRIES) in pots on her very sunny deck. She's never been able to grow anything so I am excited to coach her through it. I have promised that it will work so...I hope I'm not a liar.