Happy Saturday!

The weather took a turn this week in a way that kept me away from the garden. I had to leave everything that can be covered up covered and let the rest fend on their own. Not only was the sun hiding behind the clouds for much of the week but the storms came, one after another. The mostly empty 50-gallon rain barrel was filled almost to the brim after a storm dumped almost an inch of rain overnight.

I had to be creative and find ways to relieve the overflow status and to preserve this precious water. In the end, the following was done:

• The indoor 5-gallon bottle I am using to water the seedlings was refilled, plus 3 extra gallons of water for backup.
• A 3-gallon spray bottle was filled
• 3 32-ounce yogurt containers were filled.
• About 10 gallons of water was transferred to the other water barrel, which left the barrel at about two-thirds filled.

That night, another half-inch of rain fell, taking the barrel to overflow status again. I had nowhere to put the water except in the other barrel. So the other 50-gallon barrel was full by the time another 12 gallons of water was transferred and this barrel was about three-quarter full.

All this rain left me scrambling because it’s been a while since it’s rain this much. Immediately, I went shopping on Amazon for a solution and bought some 5-gallon containers that looked like it would be used by doomsday preppers. I have no doubt the barrel is in overflow status again after the storms on Thursday and Friday but frankly, it’s too cold for me to go out to stand around watching plastic containers filled up. I may do it over the weekend.

It was Friday when I gave my indoor garden the time of day. I mean, I do look at it and make sure the seedlings got enough water, but nothing more than that.

On Thursday night, I watched a YouTube video on growing peas and my jaw dropped. “I’ve been growing peas wrong all this time?” In the past, I would be sowing peas directly in the soil outside. I would put 2 seeds in a planting hole spacing them one hand apart. This gardener I follow on YouTube likes to start peas indoors and he sows 3-4 seeds in a small cell. “Are you serious?” I said to the video.

So, obviously, I’ve been not generous enough when it comes to my pea seeds, is that why people a large bag of them? Because you have drop at least 3 seeds per cell?

Yesterday, after work, I immediately grabbed a couple of the 6-cell trays and sowed a second round of pea seeds, hopefully, I can get those in the ground by the middle or end of the month before the weather can get too warm.

I sometimes feel like this seed-starting season has dragged on and on but at the same time, I feel like it’s flown by. I mean, it’s March and I haven’t thought about sowing lettuce yet. At this point, I fear I might be too late and might need to settle with growing the heat-tolerant lettuce varieties like oak leaves and romaine-type lettuces but before I can even sow lettuce seeds, I must once again either take some of these to grow outside or transplant some of these seedlings. Hopefully the weather will improve enough to bring the seedlings out again.

Thank you for reading and thank you to Natalie for hosting WeekendCoffeeShare. Have a great week ahead.