Thursday, March 3, 2011

The seedling massacre

Part of gardening that just pains me is thinning seedlings. I know it must be done, but I really have a hard time with it. Last year, I ended up with about a trillion tomato plants because I just couldn't get rid of all the extra seedlings that came up both in my seed starting flats and volunteered in the garden. I re potted them all and tried to give away as many as I could. This year, I decided that less is more, and a sacrifice of a few small seedlings really does benefit the garden in the end. Man oh man, is it hard to actually tear those little guys out though! My seedlings are thriving, and in each pot I had two or three really good looking plants. There is only room for one, and so the others had to go. The pile of rejects was just so sad to look at, but I know it was the right thing to do. I'm growing as a gardener. Sigh.

5 comments:

jenn said...

it really is the darkest day of gardening, isn't it.

Granola Funk Mama said...

how big should you wait for them to grow before thinning?

Laurie said...

I let them get a few inches tall, but if there is clearly a "winner" in the bunch I weeded the others out before then. I'm pretty sure I thinned later than I should have just because it is so hard to do for me :(

Jenni said...

If you have extra basil or cilantro, we'd happily take it off your hands. (We're starting small. REAL small.) ;)

Laurie said...

I think we'll have some extra herbs!