Seeds for a Living: Have you been to the Fort Thomas Florist yet?

Today was "get ready to start planting indoor seeds day."

The main things I needed were potting soil and a new grow light. Everything else I plan on bootlegging. My mission: to get potting soil and grow lights. I've heard that Ft. Thomas florist is awesome, so I decided to check them out and see if they had the potting mix. I can confirm.. they are awesome.. and yes, they are a great source for potting mix.

They are also wonderful for.. FERNS! Oh my, I didn't realize how much I appreciated ferns until I was surrounded by them!

See how happy they were making me?

The ferns and flowers were hanging everywhere. The place is huge. Its huge and friendly and such a fun little plant adventure spot! They let me browse around undisturbed. It's very serene in there with a bunch of baby plants getting ready for their showdown in spring.

Oh my, flowers already? My little heart could hardly take it, I almost bought them out. Wes wouldn't mind right? He likes flowers.. Yikes, thats when I decided to get on with my mission: Potting soil! The people there were very helpful and nice. They got me exactly what I needed. I wanted to stay and become friends with everyone, but you know, I was on a mission!

Here's my loot!

When you are starting plants from seed, its preferable to have new soil. These babies need all the help they can get. You want a light (light as in doesn't weigh very much) mix. Here's a basic recipe:

compost
perlite or vermiculite
some sort of fertilizer (back at the farm we used blood meal, some seaweed stuff, and lime)
peat moss

Ask your florist/garden supplier and they'll give you the right ratios. Usually it will all be bagged up and you don't even have to think about it. The Ft. Thomas Florist had a great bag of most of the stuff I wanted but it was too heavy so they suggested I buy something lightweight to mix it with. I bought Black Gold potting mix to lighten the stuff they gave me. Peat moss would have worked too.