Oh the Humanity or Things that Make Me Cry

Ok, I didn't cry, but I wanted to.

We decided to start hardening our seedlings this weekend. Basically this means putting them outside for periods of time to get them used to wind, climate, sun, whatever - the outside. I put them on our deck's railing, since we were using our table to transplant the carrots and parsnip into pots.

Side-note: We do not expect the carrots and parsnip to make it. Apparently, carrots and parsnips do not transplant well, but we started growing them before we knew that. They are very spindly with fragile roots, so this doesn't surprise me one bit. Live and learn. But I still felt bad and wanted to give them a shot at life. So they are in pots.

Everyone was happy and healthy until about 5pm, when a storm tried to blow in. And when I say blow, I mean blow. Cuz this happened to my BEAUTIFUL lettuce, kale, and spinach seedlings - flop. Dead.

They were my strongest, healthiest looking seedlings. I just stood there, wanting to cry, but not because I knew better. We'll plant more. It's ok. But they were still so pretty, and it felt like a little part of me died. At least for an hour or so.

Husband wanted to start more that night, but I said no. I think it's best to just plant them directly in the ground in a couple weeks. No fussing with them inside and less to move inside and outside. No worrying about transplant shock.

Also, given these guys' shallow root system, I'm hoping they will thrive since we have a healthy layer of sheep n' peat on top of the miserable clay.

Here's a close up of the awful:

You can see the poor lettuce leaves. :-(

RIP leafy green seedlings. Sorry we didn't get to eat you.

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