I am a God!

This week the sweet peppers and cauliflowers are starting to come up, and the onions are over 2 inches tall already.  I feel as if I have created life, created my own environment, and it's wildly addictive.

The greenhouses I have in the house are filling up quickly, but the trouble is I really wanted to use all toilet paper rolls and newspapers as my seed starters, but I'm finding that there are not enough butts to wipe in my circle of friends to provide enough TP rolls, and making the newspaper cups is a lot of work when you need as many as I do.

So, here's the breakdown.  I have three greenhouses.  Each greenhouse has 4 shelves.  Each shelf holds two black seed trays.  Each seed tray holds 55 newspaper cups.  That's 880 newspaper cups (with one to three seeds in each, depending) in each greenhouse.  I think I did a couple hundred and then gave up.  It's exhausting and filthy.  Also, they are about the same size as TP rolls, so it would require the same amount of TP rolls to fill my space.

I broke down and started using Dixie cups out of exhaustion.  This is going to be a problem, I can already tell, because the waxy coating is preventing drainage.  I should poke holes in the bottoms, but OHMYGOD, I've already filled a greenhouse with them.  Despite my tenacity, I'm starting to grow tired.  So much work is already involved and I'm not even sprouting half of them yet, not to mention all the seeds that still need to go in.  And my back hurts from sitting there rolling newspapers into cups or filling them with dirt mixtures, or planting teeny seeds the same color as the dirt.  I know it will pay off, but right now I'm tired.

However, finding my sprouted sweet peppers and cauliflower today really gave me a boost, so I planted the nasturtiums and Brussels sprouts.  What the heck am I going to do with 200 Brussels sprout plants?  This is going to be a bigger dilemma later on.

Yesterday it was finally warm enough that most of the snow has melted on my property and what isn't melted is giving me a clear indication of the lack of sunlight these areas get, so I went out and was able to plan where the raised beds will go.  Of the plants I have planned, there are three distinct groupings of companion plants that will go in each bed, and a hill of zucchini and pumpkins.  One single bed for each group is highly insufficient, so I believe I made room for six 4x8' beds in the backyard, where ample sunlight should keep things healthy.  So, two beds of each group.  With the help of my brother, we planned out the bed shapes and sizes, and we went to Home Depot to price the lumber.  Menard's was cheaper, by far, and now we're starting to wonder if we should just go with pine instead of cedar, since I don't need these beds there forever.  We shall see.  I don't need them for another month or so, probably longer.

The task after this will be to figure out my watering game.  My sump pump well (which I believe is filling constantly with a bad seal on water well from when the house relied on well water) has so much excess water in it that isn't dirty, and I'd like to route that water outside to use to irrigate the veggies, possibly through a soaker hose system.

The inside of my house is so neglected right now.  Laundry is piling up, dishes, I haven't mopped in far too long.  All I can think about is my veggies.  This is going to be a very short spring, I can tell.  There's simply not enough time in the day to do all the things I need to do.