Seeds and Patterns

I had two things I wanted to get accomplished today:  plant my flower seeds, and pick up some McCall patterns from JoAnn's while they're on sale for a buck a piece.  The above picture shows all the little vegetable seedlings I started last month.  I had been saving all those plastic containers that my organic, baby spinach leaves come in just for this purpose.  I don't usually like to buy things in plastic, but I knew that these containers would make great, little greenhouses!   I kept the lids on until the seedlings became too tall.  Each tub holds six, medium sized peat pots.  I don't have any grow lights, so I set them out on my patio table each morning, and then bring them in again at night.  So far, this has been working great, and the seedlings look healthy.   Once the nights start to get a little warmer, I will leave them out all night, too.  So far, I have pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, and broccoli growing.

 

I went a little crazy with the flower seeds this year!  I don't usually plant flowers, just vegetables, but I decided to shake things up a little.  After spending nearly an hour in the garden department of my favorite, one-stop shopping store, I ended up with 18 seed packets in my cart.  But hey, they were half off, so how could I resist?  There are three different varieties of zinnias, two different sweet peas, three different sunflowers, nasturtiums, baby's breath, snap dragons, and lots others.  I'm excited to see how they do.  I'm being optimistic and envisioning a yard full of flowers, come this summer. 

 

I used these Jiffy seed trays that had 72 plastic compartments each.  In other words, if every little seedling sprouts, I will have 216 flowers to plant.  216!  Crazy, I know.  But lots of fun, too. 

I got five of my seven raised garden boxes weeded a couple of weeks ago, so I hope to get some vegies planted in them this weekend, if we get any dry weather.  Spinach, lettuce, radishes, peas, kale, swiss chard and broccoli can all be planted now.  I really want to have a nice garden this year, and hopefully help out our food budget with home grown produce.

 

And yes, I did make it to JoAnn's today.  Here are the patterns I came home with.  The coat pattern isn't very summery, I know, but I figured it would be nice to have on hand for the fall.  The other patterns each have different elements that I want to incorporate into Sophie's dresses for the summer.  I think I'm going to start with the pattern on the top right; it has a cross-over bodice which is a different look from the typical, little girl dresses I've sewn.  Tomorrow, I head over to my favorite fabric store with my best friend for their big sale.  I'm going to try to resist buying too much fabric, but I anticipate coming home with at least a couple of pretty prints!