I’ve been busy this week…catching and securing the garden tarps during a furious windstorm…emptying storage boxes and filling baggies for tuber wake up…babying and potting up new dahlias sprouts…getting terrified of gall before coming to my senses…worrying wether or not I ruined the soil with my amending before deciding it was okay…crying over trays and trays of dead seeds.

Yeah. I’m afraid the super seed starting mix was my biggest woe. It was a flop. I’m sure I followed the instructions to the letter. I’m fairly certain of that. But nothing I’ve grown in it has survived. That’s painful. In past years I’ve always had crazy good success with seeds. But other than a couple tiny yarrow seeds which germinated and promptly died, I’m batting zero. Zero. Out of a lot of trays. At this particular moment, I’m glad I started seeds a hair too early—there is still time for another reboot. But still! It’s driving me crazy!

I wrote a few weeks back about a super seed starting mix I heard about and made, but yesterday I purchased some regular germinating mix online and it was delivered this morning. I’m going to repeat a couple trays, just to satisfy my curiosity and hopefully return me to sanity, lol! I’ve found some people online who have had the same problem with the super seed starting mix. I suspect there might be more comments as the season progresses, as the majority of people don’t start their seeds this early, but there are also glowing reviews. Maybe the type of seed I’ve been trying to start is the problem. All my seeds thus far have been…dainty. The hardier ones don’t need to be kicked into gear this early.

Oh, well! It’s a learning experience! Sometimes you try things and they work…sometimes you try things and they flop. But either way, there are lessons to be gleaned.

But it also leaves me with questions!

Will I have enough seed? Should I replace what I lost, or just grow what I have? Some of it isn’t replaceable, unfortunately. What will I do if the soil isn’t the problem? I can’t think of any other variables! I suppose I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

This weeks certainly hasn’t only been woes. One of the wins were tuber/young plant sales! I made almost $200 in sales or orders for plants. Now, I’m not going to count that money until it’s actually in hand (an order doesn’t not necessarily equal a pickup, and I’m still waiting on a few people), but it was still encouraging to have good interest, and fun to chat with people picking up their new tubers.

I know it isn’t a huge amount of money, but that sales number that’s a pretty good chunk of the goal I set to make this year—about 20%. (Now, I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that EXPENSES keep popping up, and I’ll need to make more than that number just to break even for the year (not counting labor, etc), but I’ll still take that as a win! My goal this year is to build a solid foundation from which I can scale up, and a lot of purchases this year should last for a number of years.)

Another win has been getting the greenhouse set up and expanding my grow lights situation. My dad is the amazing grow light engineer—I’m so grateful for his ideas and willingness to put them into practice. He invented a system where the lights can be shifted and moved around easily as the plants grow. There may still need to be more lights to set up, but for now, this is enough. I’m hoping the plants will soon be able to spend most of their time in the greenhouse.

Another win, I HOPE, was finally figuring out what was wrong with the seeds. I’ve got a heating pad now with a soil probe that maintains soil at a consistent temperature and I’ve repurchased snapdragon seeds (pelleted this time, with its a listed germination rate in the high nineties). I’ve also cold stratified the seeds. I thought each one of those things might be the problem, but my seeds still aren’t sprouting.

The last thing to change, I think, is the soil. *sigh* Maybe I should have tried that first, but that expensive soil that was supposed to feed, nurture, and love these seeds. It was put together with the help of Floret and my friendly local gardener. *sigh* But everything else seems to be perfect, now, so here goes the potting soil exchange!

Oh, another win was finding some fun flowers on a garden walk yesterday! We had a couple inches of snow earlier this week, so I didn’t exactly expect flowers, but they were going strong. Spring is technically here, and when I see little beauties like these, it makes my heart start to believe it🩷!

Have you started waking up dahlias or starting seeds? I hope you’re enjoying the beautiful flower growing miracle!

-Angela