Worm class was fun even though the group work sucked.  (Doesn’t group work always suck?)  The leader of my group was an idiot who couldn’t follow instructions and I, personally, really like to follow instructions.  So we were not destined to become best friends.  It wasn’t even clear that we were destined to leave the class without bloodshed but in the end I kept a lid on it and no one was harmed.  But really… when the teacher tells you to move the straw aside and bury the food scraps at the bottom of the bin in one corner, and your response is to sprinkle the food all over the top of the straw, I think it really is appropriate to mentally sort you into the “idiot” category.  I wish her worms well but don’t have high hopes.

Also, I walked to class  because I like to walk and I am, as you know, constantly fretting about my level of fatness.  But when burdened with a 53L worm bin plus acccessories, it was not practical to walk home.  And now I will indulge in a favourite Vancouver activity: bitching about the busses.  It took me about 70 minutes to walk to class – and 90 to bus home.  That just shouldn’t happen.  I also shouldn’t have to stand next to the chatty bigmouth at the bus stop but life is not fair.  I now know more about the Translink dispute resolution system than I ever thought I would (did you know priority is for seniors and wheelchairs, and women with baby strollers can be asked to get off the bus if their stroller is preventing one of the former categories from boarding the bus?  It’s true, the bigmouth said so!).

So now I am working myself up the energy to walk from here (the dining room) to there (the bathroom) where I will lie in the tub and read my book and fantasize about how nice it would be if someone else made dinner tonight.  Considering I am unemployed and Husband is working something like 90 hours this week my odds are not good, but as my beloved grandmother used to say, it’s healthy to want.

This is thyme, in seed form.  It’s hiding there under 3mm of dirt (give or take – how precise can you be at those measurements?).  Also:

The first of what I hope to be a few waves of lettuce, also as seeds, also in 3mm of dirt.  I bought the basil as a proper plant as the store didn’t have basil seeds and I really wanted some.  Once the deck planters are finished (tomorrow the guy says – I have heard this before so I am not holding my breath), it will be transplanted.  The seeds will stay indoors until they have sprouted and been hardened off – this last means a gradual transition to outdoors with greater and greater exposures to outside daily until they can tolerate a full day in the different climate.  I am not sure why a plant needs this but my book advised it so I will do it.

It also advised that those peat pots are often contaminated with the eggs of some kind of worm that is harmful, so I dampened and microwaved them for 2 minutes to sterilize them.

I also bought other seeds that apparently do best when planted directly into their outdoor soil without the fuss of indoor seeding and transplanting, which will go in the ground soon.  We’ll have radishes, lettuce, green onions (scallions), and herbs.  It’s the wrong time of year to start the herbs but I’m going for it anyway.

Potential problems: I am starting with very few seeds and therefore very few seedlings, which means any failures will essentially wipe out my whole crop.  I will make a duplicate set of these guys in about a week as backup, but I don’t have the garden space for a million plants so I can’t just plant fifty.  I also don’t want to throw away perfectly good plants because I oversowed and haven’t the space.

I don’t know how much to water these guys.  I guess I’ll try to keep ‘em damp but apparently the leading cause of seed failure is overwatering, so… I dunno, I’ll wing it.

Potential boons: I bought regular looking seeds but wickedly good soil, which I then mixed with about 20% by volume worm castings.  This is a euphemism for worm poop.  It apparently is great for all soil but particularly seedlings, where it retains moisture but also aids drainage so you get the right level of dampness, and slowly releases nutrients so the baby plants don’t burn but also don’t starve.  And it looks like teeny, tiny turds!  But it has no smell and feels neat.  Even if it does nothing for my seeds it is fun to handle.

I have great sun and my main challenge will be providing enough shade for the lettuce, which needs only partial sun when sown this time of year.

So this is the very beginning of my little garden!  I must say I feel quite affectionately attached to it already.