The starts are starting

Today was the first day of thinning for my summer crop of tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, onions, etc.

Here's the before:

Here's the after:



















What a mess. It always is. I used to feel kind of guilty about killing off so many beautiful little plants. Worse yet, the aftermath of thinning is such a sparse dismal sight.

To baby those seeds into sprouting, enjoy how the greenery filled the soil, take in the morning smells of a garden in the basement, get excited about the growth every day, only to rip out and destroy so much seems cruel and counterproductive - especially when the survivors look so shell shocked. Their future doesn't look very good. Except...

I've seen the same thing happen every year. Within a day or two, they are back, stems plumping in the dirt. The growlight is raised a little every day to accommodate their healthiness. All the purged plants are not even a memory as I transplant the lucky ones into bigger pots. Sometimes gardening is as heartless as it gets.

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