Growing Challenge — 3 Steps Forward and 1 Step Back

Three steps forward:  three of my indoor pots have produced seedlings so far:  turnips, mesclun salad mix, and brussels sprouts.  (I guess that means I have a brussels sprout – er, sprout?  :)  I haven’t grown mesclun mix before, so I guess that counts as another Growing Challenge item, though I hadn’t decided to plant it at the time I listed my inclusions.  I’ve grown brussel sprouts before, years ago, and I assume I started them from seed, but I really don’t remember.   Even though it was about 80*F here today, it’s supposed to get cold again in a few days, so I’m glad I’m starting all these guys indoors.  Within a week or two, though, I’ll have to put the turnips in the ground, as they’ll get too big for their pot.  But they’re hardy, so I have hopes that they’ll be ok.  As I mentioned before, I’ll plant some seeds straight in the ground at that time.

Now for the step back:  when I got home this afternoon, I checked in on the kitchen windowsill to see if anyone new had sprouted, and I saw that one of my containers was upside down on the counter and in the sink!  Potting soil everywhere!  Oh no!  It was the container with the dipper gourd seeds.  I think the cat must have been climbing up around there and stepped on the container, which extended out just a bit off the sill, due to the window being open to let a little fresh air in, so…  Darn!  I put all the soil back in the container.  I didn’t see any half-sprouted seeds, either.  I saw one or two seeds that still looked like seeds.  Hopefully they will still sprout ok.  Keeping the cat off the counter is another story though…  I’m pretty sure he was chasing flies — yesterday when it was so nice, I opened up two doors and a screenless window and just kept them open all day, to air out the house on such a nice day!  I hoped the flies etc would fly in and then just fly right on out.  Erm, it didn’t quite work — the house was FULL of flies and mosquitoes!  I’ve been snapping towels at them, catching them in jars to put outside, encouraging the dog and the cat to think of them as toys, anything!  Haven’t noticed any more mosquitoes today, I might have gotten all those, but there’s still lots of flies I haven’t vanquished.  I’d bet anything the flies were hovering in that kitchen window and Bear the cat was ‘only trying to help’ when he stepped on the potted gourd seeds.

OK, I’m over it now.