Truth and Consequences
Every action has at least one consequence. Sometimes the consequences are intentional, other times not so much. An unintentional consequence of adding on our media room is that my once sunny bright laundry room has lost its wonderful window, and its fate sealed as the dungeon of doom.
It was in this newly darkened and dank cavity of our home that I unintentionally spent my Saturday afternoon.
Hours before I had successfully deployed my teenage son and sweet husband (teenager in spirit) into combat on nearby paintball fields with names like China Beach, Beirut, and Kosovo. They were joining 16 other male-types in pure, testosterone-rich Airsoft warfare to celebrate Evan’s friend’s 16th birthday.
Now, the day was mine. After struggling for two straight weeks with computer program issues – oh, just don’t get me started – I was intentionally avoiding anything with a keyboard or a stylus for the balance of the day. This led me outdoors to an incredibly beautiful spring day. With spirits buoyed by sunshine, and dodging the occasional season-crazed hummingbird, I headed toward a square patch of bare ground held in reserve for a raised bed. The hardware for that proposed bed had been purchased in an end-of-season closeout sale. Still in the box it came in, all that was needed were the timbers to frame it and a load or two of some good soil. I could picture it now: neatly kept, pest-free, and brimming with gorgeous veggies.
But the more I looked around at the rest of the yard, it wasn’t a bowl of peas I was craving – It was color! Hot pink peach blossoms framed by a like-minded bougainvillea wrapping the kitchen window were quickly giving way to the green leaves of spring. And the rockroses throughout the garden were performing beautifully for their colorful part.
But they would soon be turning the page on their brief seasonal act and making room for another cast of characters. Who, I wondered, would be next in line to give sustenance to my greedy designer eyes?
Vowing to remain in comfy clothes and zero makeup, this was not the time to be going on a shopping spree. So I dug out my stash of unused seeds from last season and began formulating a plan of attack. Across the path from the someday-this-will-be-a-raised-bed area stands a little garden shed
with a small space on either side which I had purposed for cutting flowers. Deviously grinning to find most of my seed packets were flowers instead of edibles, I saw the writing on the wall and moved forward.
I have tried many methods for seed starting with varying success. But, last year was my introduction to a method known as soil-blocking. And, if you haven’t tried it, you must give it a try. Soil blocking is a very economical, space-saving and waste-free way of starting plants from seed. Instead of containing the soil or other planting medium in cells or trays, you gather it in a sort of stamping mechanism which, when dispensed on a small tray, produces little individual blocks of the stuff.
You can make a couple of different sizes of blocks to accommodate the range of seed sizes available. Once the blocks are on the little tray, a seed is placed either on top of or into each block. Watering with a gentle pour along the edge of the tray delivers moisture to the soil.
When the trays are seeded and watered, they are placed on a propagation mat that keeps the soil warm. Then, after 50% of the seeds have germinated, the trays are moved to a grow light which delivers “sunshine” for 16 hours a day. Because the light is stationary, the seedlings do not have to bend to one side or the other to reach it as they would normally have to on a window sill. So these plants get an even-growing, stocky little start. At 5” tall, they are ready for the garden. Planted in the earth they were born for, lovingly mulched and shielded with a floating row cover for several days, the hardening-off process can be skipped altogether. Did I mention this process is also a real time-saver?
I know this sounds a little like an extravagant science project, but when I can breathe life into 240 plants on a 3’x2’ countertop in my dark and dank laundry room, well, call me a happy garden maker!
Don’t worry – the veggies will still have their day next to the dryer. These little guys need less than a week on the warming mat, so there is always room for more.
If you think you would like to find out more about the soil blocking technique, check out The Gardener’s Workshop. They are a wonderful resource for instruction, supplies and inspiration. I am a huge fan!
So from a media room addition, to a laundry room gone dungeon, to botanical birthing room, to a garden full of colorful flowers – how many degrees of separation is that? As for the men in my family, you’ll be happy to know they returned home with plenty of war stories and many a proudly displayed battle scar. Emoting a shared satisfaction larger than life, clearly their scrapes and bruises were, well, inconsequential.
