Lettuce not doing so well

I've got most of my seeds transplanted from the vermiculite to the little trays filled with Mels mix.  My Red & Green leaf lettuce and the Swiss chard seem to be dying.  Not for sure what to do.  I keep them under grow lights for 8-10 hours a day.  They kind of went into shock after I put them in actual soil.  On a positive note, my tomato, jalapeno, egg plant and my herbs are doing great!

First Transplants

My seeds are spouting like crazy.  I really overdid it by planting so many seeds.  The Square Foot Gardner warns about this but I did it anyway.  I have zillions of little sprouts.  I transplanted them into my Mel's Mix and hope for the best.  It is really cool to see these things grow from a seed.  So far I've transplanted my two tomato varieties, my red and green leaf lettuce and Swiss Chard.  My green onions are sprouting like crazy also, will transplant them tomorrow.

Here is my completed 4x4 garden filled with Mel's Mix.  I did figure out when I started to put the lattice bars on that my frame was not quite square.  I screwed them together wrong, so I re did it and it came together a lot better.

Purchased the rest of the Mel's Mix products and mixed them together.  Had my five different types of compost along with the  peat moss and vermiculite.  Wasn't for sure how to measure it correctly so I just filled a five gallon bucket with each ingredient and threw it all on my tarp and mixed it up.

I have growth!

Here is a picture of my first ever seeds sprouting.  Just planted these four days ago in vermiculite.  These are my lettuce plants Red and Green Leaf.  I better get busy making my Mel's Mix so I can transplant them.  I think I may have over did  the seeds.  There are like 30 little sprouts in each little cup.  I guess my pinch had a lot more seeds than I thought.  Oh well, at least something is growing.

I just received my Valentines present from the family.  They are making sure that no birds mess with our garden!  The netting is for my future cantaloupe's.  I'm going to build a frame this weekend and strap my new netting to it.

Not much to update.  Have the seeds under a grow light and keeping them watered.  I'm a little confused on how much to water, but according to the Square Foot Gardner, you really can't go wrong with the vermiculite. The vermiculite stays pretty moist.  I'll post pictures as soon as I get some spouts.

Started my seeds

I started my seeds today.  I got some small portion cups and poked holes in the bottom.  Put in some vermiculite and the seeds, then topped with more vermiculite.  Watered in the tray and the vermiculite sucked it right up.

MY Square Foot Garden Frame

The frame was really easy to build.  I bought four 2"x6"x8' boards and Lowe's cut them for me.  I screwed them together and stapled the weed barrier to the bottom.  Now they are ready for Mel's Mix.  The cost of each square was about $10.  I built two of them and will fill them in a week or so with the mix.

My Seed Starter

I found an old cart in my attic, brought it down and spray painted it.  I found some 18" lights at Lowe's @10 bucks each, bought some "Grow Lights" (they pretty much look just like the lights that came with the lamp but cost $8 each) and velcro'd them to the underside of each shelf.  Attached is my picture of the shelf.

I'm trying to follow the Square Foot Gardner Book and will plant my seeds in vermiculite tomorrow and see what happens.  I went to Stringer Nursery Tulsa again today and purchased more seeds for my salad garden.  They have tons of peat moss and composte, so I will be back to get that when I get ready to make my Mel's Mix.

My First Square Foot Garden

I'm in the process of starting my first Square Foot Garden.  I tried a raised bed garden last year having never heard of Square Foot Gardening (SFG).  I grew some really huge plants but not one vegetable!  I take that back I finally grew a squash, but the squash bugs got in and took care of that one.  Going to go at it a little different this year and follow the SFG plan the best I can.  I just finished building two frames and will use my previous frame this year also.  The SFG book is really awesome, but I'm a little worried about trying to start my own seeds and when to plant etc.

The SFG book says that you need 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 compost.  I'm a little confused on how to put it all together because the vermiculite and the peat moss come in cube foot bags (but the peat moss expands to 8 cubic feet from a 4 cubic feet bag) and the compost comes in pound bags.  Guess I'm just going to fill my five gallon pickle bucket with equal ingredients and keep adding until my box is full.

Vermiculite is not real easy to find, but I did finally find it at Stringer Nursery in Tulsa.  They were very helpful and I bought two big bags.  I also just got my seeds in the mail so will try and start those this weekend.  I hope the seeds I bought are better than the seeds I could have purchased at Stringer.  The seeds I bought from Burpee.com are like $4 a pack and the seeds at the nursery were around $2 and from the same company.