Cabin fever and holding your nerves

The title kind of sums it up doesn't it .
 Who amongst us  is just dying to get as many seeds sown as they can because it's getting lighter each day by about 2.5 minutes  ..a sure sign that spring is a few weeks away even if some of you still have six foot (1.78 mtrs ) of snow on the back yard ?

Some are lucky living in the warmer clime but I guess most of us have seen their daffodils poke their green arms out the ground by now , Most of  crocus are now in bloom along with some overwintering pansies, so are also flowering  snowdrops in some of grass verges of the village .

 So as not to go " Stir Stupid "  and sow far too early ,tomorrow I'm going to draw up /fill in my seed sowing charts for the year , carefully & faithfully putting in the sow , pot up and harvest periods for each seed type & variety . That should keep me busy for a day or so then I'll clear out the glasshouse & give it a disinfectant & detergent washout to knock down any bugs, fungi or moulds etc.  in readiness for the new season , that will take me a couple more days 
 Then I'll have a marathon session of washing and sterilizing the grow tubes and foam plugs for a few days .   Unless of course Alison says I can use our  brand new , less than a week old top of the range dishwasher.

Finally I'l spend a day or so washing the old seed labels all 600 of them ( " Dishwasher again DARLING ? "  )  Once dry I'll  then a gentle rub with WD40 & a soft cloth  to remove any pencil marks of writing that remains. Then I'll start assembling the grow tube & filling them as needed ready for sowing according to my planners. I guess I have nearly 400 of my  open ended pots these days .... might have to go garden shopping to buy some more 7 x 14 x 2 "  ( 175 x 350 x 50 mm )  deep gravel heavy duty seed  trays to contain them upright .

It sounds a lot to do but in reality it isn't , planning it out helps get it done and done in the right order. I have to plan to do a couple of hours over a several hour period each day like this so I can allow for days when disability flareup's restrict or prevent me from doing anything.

Thankfully I learnt all this planning & thinking things through long before the idea of gardening as a disabled person overwhelmed me , for it also applied to me when I was younger ,  fit , handsome and modest

plantoid wrote:
 Then I'll have a marathon session of washing and sterilizing the grow tubes and foam plugs for a few days .   Unless of course Alison says I can use our  brand new , less than a week old top of the range dishwasher.

Finally I'l spend a day or so washing the old seed labels all 600 of them ( " Dishwasher again DARLING ? "  ) 

Good luck with THAT one! 

Plantoid, wonderful lesson to all of us who garden in a rather haphazard way.
In the past I have inclined to procrastinate about getting things ready, but this year, due to the snow melting and not being repolaced I have been able to work outside in the garden.  Only for an hour or  so as it is still only just above freezing and the ground is still frozen.  But I have been able to do a lot of clearing up so it is worth it.

The planning part is always the most fun part for me, but then maybe I'm crazy.  So I think you have the right idea!  Keep yourself busy with the excitement of planning the new garden to keep your mind off of the weather outside.  I'm a week away from my first seed planting (YAY!), and I just started cleaning out my planting pots and getting everything ready for the big day.  I don't plan on over planting, but I can already tell it's going to happen.  I was only intending to clean enough pots to plant the seeds I need to plant next week, but I found  myself instead cleaning them all, "just in case I decide to plant something else", lol!  So I may end up with more than just onions, peppers and catnip planted.  In the back of my head, I can see visions trays and trays of coleuses and petunias too.

AtlantaMarie wrote:

plantoid wrote:
 Then I'll have a marathon session of washing and sterilizing the grow tubes and foam plugs for a few days .   Unless of course Alison says I can use our  brand new , less than a week old top of the range dishwasher.

Finally I'l spend a day or so washing the old seed labels all 600 of them ( " Dishwasher again DARLING ? "  ) 

Good luck with THAT one! 

+1

sanderson wrote:

AtlantaMarie wrote:

plantoid wrote:
 Then I'll have a marathon session of washing and sterilizing the grow tubes and foam plugs for a few days .   Unless of course Alison says I can use our  brand new , less than a week old top of the range dishwasher.

Finally I'l spend a day or so washing the old seed labels all 600 of them ( " Dishwasher again DARLING ? "  ) 

Good luck with THAT one! 

+1

Washing soil, probably not, but sterilizing, I would let you.  After all, I do it.

Kay

Hmmmmm...I was only planning on tomatoes, beans, onions, carrots, and peppers. However, I always seem to find something else that grabs my attention (ooohh, shiny!) and again I have added to my list. My caveat to the plans is that I will out of state for work training during my normal indoor seedling care, leaving the burden to Hubby. Since he is NOT a fan of my garden, I am torn between starting the seeds and leaving them in his care or waiting until I get back and starting them either indoors late or actually in-ground risking my crops with my short growing season.

Dilemma...

I've got all my seeds  sorted today .... all 68  air tight small clear plastic containers of them , tomorrow I hope to edit & update the eXcel spread sheets.

 Initially I had 125 labeled up air tight containers . I found I still had seeds that the Seed Houses say should have been binned back in 2011..
My seed viability lists are magic & even then I've stretched a  quite a few of the viability lists  suggested storage times .

I ended up disposing of about 50%  of viability checked seeds and also cleaned out a couple of dozen empty tubes that still had the labels on the inside.
 
Buying most of my seeds as end of year ,just before Christmas disposals means I often get them for pennies . however some that I got in November last year were not such a bargain apparently , for three packets of carrots were stamped " Use by 2013 ".

Goosegirl wrote:However, I always seem to find something else that grabs my attention (ooohh, shiny!)

 We call it "Oh, squirrel!" as in a dog or cat getting distracted.

sanderson wrote:

Goosegirl wrote:However, I always seem to find something else that grabs my attention (ooohh, shiny!)

 We call it "Oh, squirrel!" as in a dog or cat getting distracted.

Or as my ex-husband used to say when he wanted to steal something off my plate "Is that a rabbit over there?"!

Have you tried using a pretty pink fat eraser to erase the pencil marks on your labels? That is what I do. It worked also when the kids were little and wrote with a pencil on the walls. I would use WD-40 for crayon marks and then something soapy to get the oily stuff off the walls.

If the eraser doesn't work, I have read about using fine sandpaper.

Goosegirl wrote: My caveat to the plans is that I will out of state for work training during my normal indoor seedling care, leaving the burden to Hubby.  Since he is NOT a fan of my garden, I am torn between starting the seeds and leaving them in his care or waiting until I get back and starting them either indoors late or actually in-ground risking my crops with my short growing season.

Dilemma...

Do both, that way you have back up.

littlesapphire wrote:I'm a week away from my first seed planting (YAY!), and I just started cleaning out my planting pots and getting everything ready for the big day.  I don't plan on over planting, but I can already tell it's going to happen. 

I know what you mean!  Why do we do that???

Plantoid, when it's time to throw out old seeds I can't help but toss the seeds in an out of the way corner of the yard... just in case.   Then I completely forget to check back to see if any have sprouted.

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:

Goosegirl wrote: My caveat to the plans is that I will out of state for work training during my normal indoor seedling care, leaving the burden to Hubby.  Since he is NOT a fan of my garden, I am torn between starting the seeds and leaving them in his care or waiting until I get back and starting them either indoors late or actually in-ground risking my crops with my short growing season.

Dilemma...

Do both, that way you have back up.

Great Idea!
And since just last night he was complaining about how many seeds I have, and that NO ONE needs that many seeds (and my stash fits into one little 4"x12" tray), I apparently have plenty to do both!