My first seeds have sprouted - the Candytuft - the package said 10-15 days for germination, and it only took 3. I chose Candytuft because they are drought tolerant, and grow well in less than ideal soil conditions. I plan to put them around the rocks in my perennial gardens which are under fairly large trees that suck up all the water around. They also have sentimental value to me because my mom has them in her garden, and they have always been one of her favourites...so hopefully now I will have a garden full!!

I also started my Black Pansies - but no germination yet, and the Lupines will go in tomorrow.

Most of my seedlings are ready to be planted. I have about 2 weeks before they can go into the garden beds - but I can probably do the planters this weekend and then just pull them inside if it gets cold again. I am impressed with the geraniums and how good they look, and how easy they were to grow, but less so with the salvia. The problem may be that I just started them too early, but they are a little tall and stalky. The marigolds did well, but all the vegetables got leggy really fast.

I transplanted some of my pepper seedlings into bigger pots today - and a few of them aren't quite so happy:

Hopefully they will pop back up in a couple hours...

My first two batches of seedlings are doing fabuously. I am so impressed with the geranium and salvia seedlings after all my research told me that they could be tricky. But here they are - the geraniums are 5 1/2 weeks after planting, and the salvia are 3 1/2 weeks after planting. Both have been transplanted into 3" jiffy pots because the newspaper pots just fell apart. I don't think I will be using them again. I really like the jiffy pellets, and they take up way less space to start with. I used them for my marigolds, hostas, basil, and scabiosa. The 3" pots may have been a slight oversight as I am quickly running out of space - but I think the geraniums will need them that large, they are growing quite fast and there is still along ways to go until I can plant outside here. Alas, maybe if I quit buying seeds at the grocery store, I would have enough room.

So it really wasn't that bad. But there is something about ripping out healthy new seedlings by the roots and throwing them away that seems wrong. But it has to be done. As it is now I have 36 Jalepeno Pepper plants to find homes for.

I know the picture is blurry, but I can't find any pictures of what damping off looks like - and I have a tray full of a whitish/yellowish powdery mould - that is now covered in cinnamon - due to my own web research, with tiny delicate scabiosa (ugly name for a pretty flower) seedlings poking up. I am worried that they are going to die - but am more worried that they are going to infect my thriving geranium and salvia seedlings. Maybe this is damping off - or maybe it is just mould?