Success: Beautiful, blooming impatiens (and a stray coleus), portulaca, and tomatoes. These are totally ready for hardening-off and transplanting outdoors…if only it were May and not March. I’m counting this as a success…so far.
Success: Snapdragons, stocks, geraniums, coleus, dianthus, lupines, foxgloves, columbine, and dwarf hollyhocks thriving and surviving potting-up. The columbine, geraniums, and dianthus are the only ones I would start on the same schedule next year. All others should have been started later.
Funny! That’s totally what the seed-starting guide at Bachman’s.com said. BUT, in my defense: this year, my lighting and seed-starting mediums were greatly improved over my previous attempts. I started early this year based-on slow growth in the past. Now, I see that I can follow the recommended schedule without making adjustments.
Fail: I’ve killed two geranium plants so far. I suspect that I overwatered them. Sorry, little babies!
Fail: Just today, I noticed a few seedlings with obvious signs of damping-off. They looked normal except that they had fallen over and the part of the stem right next to the soil looked like it had been tied-off. I’m worried now about all of my littlest seedlings. Need to devise a plan. I think I read about using chamomile tea?, fungicide?, garlic?? Need to do more research. In the meantime, I adjusted the lighting on the affected tray to offer better coverage, which should help keep the soil drier.
Fail: Tried a few plantings of lavender and babies breath. I have a couple of tiny, slow-growing lavender plants, but no baby’s breath.
Fail: As the plants have grown, I’ve started to run-out of space under the artificial lights. I don’t want to purchase any more lamps this year, so I have placed my twelve huge tomatoes near a sunny window and I have a few other trays that are just receiving the sun from a sunny window. I hope it’s enough. I’m observing them carefully to look for signs that they are no longer thriving. Thanks to longer days, they may survive to spring planting. I did over-winter an impatien plant with sentimental value once. It bloomed through the winter near a sunny window, although the entire plant became smaller in scale by the next spring.
This is what my shelves look like today:
Thanks for reading!
Jenn
suburban garden zone 4 
March 26, 2014 at 2:56 am
Not that big of fails, but what an incredible garden and plans! Very inspiring! Thanks for sharing!
April 28, 2014 at 3:07 pm
Just noticed your comment! I’m still figuring-out this blogging thing…I am excited to see how my seedling do when I transplant them outdoors. They are all much bigger than the ideal transplant, according to the articles I’ve read. I try to remain optimistic 🙂