Remember those seeds that I sowed two weeks ago? This is what they looked like today:

It’s amazing what a heat mat and misters can accomplish in a short period of time. The basils are overflowing their containers and need out immediately. Hey, what happened to that missing square? Did the seeds fail to germinate? Did the seedlings die?

Nope! I had removed it and started working on it before I remembered to take a photo. It’s lemon basil and a good example of what my life will be like for the next six weeks or so.

I will be sowing seeds for another few weeks and all of those seedlings will need to be carefully picked apart and transplanted into their sale containers. Each one will contain 4 to 6 seedlings each. Thousands of seedlings into hundreds of containers. One at a time. It’s backbreaking labor.

When I need a break, I work on these beauties:

These are plugs, or plant starts, that have been donated to Rutgers Gardens. I will transplant them into sale containers also, but the seedlings have already been separated so all that I have to do is “poke” them out of their trays and pop them into flats of containers. Easy peasy. And much easier on my back.

In case you’re wondering, left to right, chamomile, mini lavender, Hidcote lavender.