Seedlings...ready. Get set. Go!

The '06 gardening season has officially begun. I planted 40 tomato seeds last night (Old seeds! Old seeds! I'm not totally bonkers!), and put them on a heating pad in their little corner in the basement. Since they are old seeds, some nearly 5 years old, I planted at least 2 if not three seeds per peat pot. None were up yet today - I checked. ;)

Most of the packages say 7-10 days for germination, but they usually seem to be faster, and I've never used a heating pad before, so I'll be more impatient than ever. Of course once they do come up, I need to have the grow light all set up and ready, and I don't even have that figured out yet. I may need 2 grow lights even, in fact I'm pretty sure with all the seeds I'm planning on starting, I'm gonna need 2.

Each year, I think; "Wow I've really gone nuts this time, I've got (blank) tomatoes and (blank) other veggies, where am I going to fit them all in?" And each year, I top myself. At some point I'm going to out-grow my tiny yard - litterally! And to complicate things in the tomato arena, and it'll pretty much be an arena this year, let me tell you, I decided after last year's poor showing in the pots on the patio section, that I'm putting those suckers in the ground. So, it's out with some of the yard, in with something that'll earn its' keep. Chuck doesn't really mow the lawn much anyway, might as well turn it all into a garden!

I am also experimenting with different gardening techniques this year. Both "Square Foot Gardening" and "Lasagna Gardening". has anyone out there tried either one of those? I've got a book on the way about the Lasagna (from the liberry) and this website pretty well explains the square foot concept, which a friend has tried and is doing again. I still have to check it out, but the lasagna technique seems like it'll be perfect for the spot of lawn I'm turning into a tomato patch. It kinda sounds too good to be true, but we'll see.

Well, now I'm off to plant a few more tomato seedlings from the seeds I got from the Seed Savers Exchange today. I can't wait 'til the "last" of my tomato seeds arrive from Tomatofest.com Woooo!

Here are some pix from the seed starting:

Lovely water beading on the oh so toasty peat pots in their little soon-to-be-green house.

Summa those peat pots full o' tomato seeds.

My "beautiful" little tomato corner set up with the heating pad and 1 small tray. I've got one more small one and a large 72 pot one yet to fill....