It's not what you think. . . .

It's not what it looks like - seriously. Cody and I have become totally nuts. It all started when we first moved into our house. I've always wanted a house so that I could have a garden and when we finally got a house I couldn't wait to start one. The next spring (since we moved into the house in June) I forced Cody to the stores around town looking for veggie plants. So we both picked out a few - me some tomatos and an eggplant and him a lot of peppers. So I sort of forced him into helping me plant them and then it just took off from there. He loved to check on them and make sure they were okay and then when they started producing fruit you would have thought we hit the lottery.

So last year he couldn't wait to get the garden started. We waited until we got back from the honeymoon (I cannot believe we have been married almost a year - damn does time fly!) and then went on our hunt for plants. We planted a few different varieties last year -some worked great, others not so much.

So when we were at the store the other day we ran across the seed packets. I told him seeds are a pain in the butt and we'll just wait until April/May like everyone else and buy our little saplings to plant directly into the ground. Well, apparently that was just not good enough. He thought the idea of planting seeds was just fabulous. So we each picked out some seed packets, bought our little peat pots and went to town. We got them all planted in their little pots and got them set in these little tin things to make watering easier. Our theory was that we would put them in front of a sunny window and let them grow until spring. Little did we realize that we live in MISSOURI and there is no sun here in the winter. So for the last few days our seeds have been sitting on the ironing board by a window but with no sun. So we did what all inteligent people do - we got on the internet. And we found that most places (Missouri included) do not get enough sunlight through windows to support seedlings. But "sun lights" do.

So off we were to Home Depot where we found a balast and two "grow lights." We already had the set of shelves so we went to town. We took the treadmill downstairs (we were meaning to do this anyway because when Cody runs on the treadmill it shakes the chandelier and walls downstairs) and set up the shelves where the treadmill was. Then we set up our light and loaded up our seedlings. We made the bottom two shelves "cat friendly" in the hopes that would entice them to stay off the shelf with the seedlings - we'll see if that works. So anyway, our plan is to rotate them daily, raise the light as the plants (hopefully) get bigger and bigger and if all works out right, by the time spring ever comes the plants will be ready to move outdoors into the veggie garden area (bigger and improved from last year). Cross your fingers or else I'm going to have a very upset husband on my hands. But we are really learning a lot about all this and are having a hell of a time with it. Plus we get yummy veggies. :)