Learning to be a green thumb

Note for the Bird Cake post: Jan, I made the bird from rice crispy treats. I mixed up a very small batch and formed a large ball and a small ball then pushed them together till it stayed. Then covered it in fondant.
This will end up as a series of blogs, that will last all summer and into the fall. If my garden lasts that long, I hope it does, but this is a first. Well the real first. Last year I did a few seeds with Big Girl J, mostly for her to see the growth. After it went into the ground it didn't survive. However, this year, we have a better set up. I have a 200 square foot garden, with a sprinkler system. The sprinkler system is new to my front flower garden last year. And we extended it into the back flower beds in the fall. We got the vegetable garden 'framed' with the railroad ties, cleaned out, and the sprinkler system was ready to be finished. After finishing it off with the compost from the winter, the last of the sprinkler heads, and three yards of dirt, I think I am ready.
Yesterday I took the girls out back, armed with dirt, potting cups, and a few seed packets, we were ready to rock this garden.

Big Girl J remembered how to fill the cups with dirt, from last year. She started to fill the cups, and was doing wonderful.  Little Miss O was playing else where when Big Girl J started filling the cups. Little Miss O was very interested in what big sister was doing, and wanted to do the same.

So they figured out how to work together, and they filled all the cups. They switched jobs occasionally, however Little Miss O had a hard time keeping the dirt on the shovel from bucket to cup. But she tried!

Next we tried to shove 6 packets of seeds into 15 cups. Can you say 'overcrowding?' Of course the super snap pea seeds looked edible, this picture was just after I had told Little Miss O to take that out of her mouth. I am not sure if it was the dirt or the rock hard seed, but she didn't try it again.

Later that evening, the empty seed packets were laying on the counter and I noticed the tomato packet said the entire packet would produce about 20 plants.

Well then gosh! I have a 200 square foot garden, I might as well get the most out of my packet that I can!

So I went to the local hydroponic store and found a very helpful owner. He set me up with some trays and grow media 'plugs' that fit into individual slots. It is perfect.

The only problem is I spent about an hour digging through my dirt cups for seeds to re-plant them. I had no chance with the tomato seeds, so I will need to buy another pack of those, but the rest have been found and salvaged.

Tada! Wish them luck on a prosperous season.