What's in YOUR mudroom?

Since I don't have a greenhouse, I start all my seeds in my family room. Well, the messy work is done in the mudroom - and believe me, today it deserved that name!

I put up another "mini-greenhouse" I bought from Job Lot (kind of looks like a baker's rack with a clear poly zippered cover), and started potting up more kale and some tomatoes. I hate to crowd the 1020 (that's 10" x 20") flats on the shelves, and I really have to get more grow lights, so I left the peppers and the majority of the tomatoes alone. But the kale was so crowded that I really had to separate it.

So now I've got 1 flat of White Russian kale (about 70 plants in 35 cells), another of Red Russian and ruffled Dwarf Blue Scotch kale mixed with some spinach and broccoli, an entire flat (larger cells) of Pink Brandywine tomatoes (36), and another flat of Grandma Mary's paste tomatoes (2 dozen) and another dozen Brandywines. I also separated 2 dozen Gardener's Delight cherry tomatoes that were started in a small 6-pack so that now they're in individual cells.

Tomatoes are pretty hardy - at this point, other than pulling off the cotyledons or first leaves, or breaking a stem, they will survive some pretty rough handling.    The White Russian kale potted up on Friday is looking good - we'll have to see how the kale I repotted today looks later this week. I've never tried starting kale indoors before, and really shouldn't have put so many seeds per cell. I don't know how well the Scotch kale will survive the surgery.

Oh, and Uncle Walt's 100th birthday party went really well, he enjoyed it, one of his grand-daughters had made up posters with family photos "100 years of Love" (wedding photos) "100 Years of Family" etc. (I didn't get a chance to look at them all) and there was also an album I'm going to have to go visit him to see since I was in the kitchen most of the time. One of his great-grandsons serenaded him (he's been performing in local theater since he was 5, his 13 now and has been accepted to the performing arts high school for the fall).

 He got a garden scooter (tractor seat, big mud tires and a 5-gal bucket in the back) in John Deere green. He can't wait to get out in the garden - you can take the boy off the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy!