I'll admit that prior to this Spring I had never even heard of vermiculite. My Square Foot Gardening book had quite a bit of info on it and it really seemed to make sense planting seeds in it to get them off to an easier start. In addition to seed starting in vermiculite (either indoors or direct seeding in the garden) you can use it as a soil conditioner. It sponges up the water and can really help with hard or clayey soils. Of course this is just what I've read... so far only a little has actually made it into the garden for starting some carrot and radish seeds but I've just today started some indoor transplants of tomatillos, lettuce and some walla walla onions.
I'll keep everyone updated on what I think of the vermiculite for a seed starting medium... the only thing I'm mildly worried about is the little seedling not getting any nutrients.
In other garden news our last weekend project has been finished. Sam made the 2 new boxes which turned out great and the trip to Boring Bark was awesome. I only picked out one plant from there but it was a 6pk of Freckles lettuce for only $2! and it was organic at that! The dirt more than made up for the lack of plants though. With a yard and a half we had enough dirt to fill both of the boxes and even add a little to the side garden.
We decided to use the new raised beds for the kids so they could each have their own space and plants. Megan's I designed for her based on her favorites... chocolate cherry tomatoes, slicing cukes, sugar snap peas, spinach, lettuce, etc.... With Eddie's garden I let him pick out all of the plants and seeds. For his we did another tomato, lemon cukes, goliath jalepeno pepper, lucifer onions and a few other things. The kids really got into the gardens and it was really cute to watch Megan water everything soooo carefully with her little watering can.
Moving on.... today was super rainy and wet outside (hence the indoor seed starting!) but I did venture out to take a look at the progress out in the garden. Two of my garden squares that were planted with radish and turnip seeds had been previously dug up by an unknown animal (I'm assuming)... this totally disturbed my picture perfect square planting method since I had no idea what was where after I re flattened the dirt back out. Now little seedlings are sprouting all over the place, including in a few square that they weren't suppose to be in at all. I suppose I'll just wait to see how they turn out, I'm sure most of it will be fine and I can thin anything that gets to unruly ;)
My lettuce is non stop amazing in the garden, with all the different varieties I have enough for full salads several days a week. We just recently added some spinach as well. I totally need a salad spinner!
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