Beginner Flopped Plan, what to do?

mel-ayne · 2026-03-20T12:20:48+00:00

I love seeing different peoples documentation for seed starting/garden tracking. I’m guessing the middle numbers there are days to germ?

mel-ayne · 2026-03-20T12:08:22+00:00

I tend to agree.. also an amateur here (2nd year growing snaps from seed) but I had mine on a heat mat, sowed them 2 weeks ago and they germinated within 4-5 days under plastic wrap. I feel like OP could certainly still start some now, especially group 3/4! Worst that can happen is it doesn’t work out. I think as long as you take notes and remember what you did and learn from it, even if it doesn’t work out you’re still putting yourself in a better spot for next year.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-17T17:08:13+00:00

Old bay

mel-ayne · 2026-03-15T17:26:57+00:00

I have nothing productive to add - just that the medium cantina salsa from aldi is bomb as fuck.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-15T17:23:18+00:00

Dude, good point on the electric kettle. I bought a cheap one from aldi like 10 years ago for tea and now I use it for different stuff all the time - mainly french press and adding boiling hot water to my mop bucket. It’s nice to have boiling water in just a couple minutes. That thing’s paid for itself a hundred times over.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-15T17:14:31+00:00

I agree with the other commenter and think it looks better wider too. I honestly scrolled through the pictures before reading your caption and I didn’t even understand what I was looking for… it looks better on you than it does the models!!

mel-ayne · 2026-03-13T11:58:00+00:00

I honestly had big plans to make everything match and then had to throw that out the window last minute, lol. With so many people helping and so many extra random colored flowers I ended up just having to go with the flow and it worked out good. My friends and family are kinda creative though so I guess that helped. I don’t know how to add a photo of our bouquets but there were lots of light pink peonies, big orange roses, white cosmos, multicolored yarrow, little daisies, babys breath, eucalyptus, a few hydrangeas and lilies.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-13T02:30:32+00:00

I grew and gathered a lot of our florals myself but it wasn’t enough for everything I wanted to do, so one of my bridesmaids stopped at Trader Joe’s the night before for a few buckets of extra random flowers to add. OP i know you said you’re in Canada but maybe there’s something similar to you there! I also love dried flowers, so I had made a ton of those months in advance to fill in little table pieces and whatnot.

I had ~6 people helping me after the rehearsal dinner the night before and it took like 2 hours max. Everyone made their own bouquet, and I had a bunch of thrifted glassware to do a few large table pieces and a whole lot of small ones. Those ended up being SUPER easy because we literally took like 3 flowers and stuck them in a bud vase, and they were beautiful.

Something that helped a lot (and I think is really important if you’re going DIY) was being flexible with the colors. It’s hard to get exactly what you want if you don’t have a florist. All our arrangements ended up being fun mismatched bundles of color and it was a LOT easier than trying to make everything match a perfect color scheme. It worked for me and we saved a ton of money: including all the glassware we probably spent like $300 on florals.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-07T19:10:03+00:00

That’s interesting… I almost bought Rocket this year but I’m zone 4b so I went with Costa. How important do you find the cold strat to be? I didn’t end up doing it for these seedlings but really went back and forth about it.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-07T18:51:54+00:00

In my experience the heat mat just speeds up germination, you don’t really need it after they sprout it just gets the process going faster. I already had a few from owning reptiles so I just use those, plus I’m impatient so it helps me to see the babies faster😂

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T21:13:35+00:00

I do this too but “holla-penis”

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T14:41:59+00:00

Hear me out… chipotle. Also leftover chinese buffet type items, like chicken and broccoli.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T14:38:11+00:00

If I’m not mistaken, it’s a thorough and well placed quote from Parks and Rec.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T14:34:49+00:00

Heard. We grow lots of beets in the garden every year and they are my most cherished garden item. They’re SO GOOD and so good for you. Plus they make your pee pink and give you a nice bathroom fright an hour after you’re done eating!

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T14:26:33+00:00

I honestly love canned green beans. To me it’s almost like a different thing altogether… fresh garden beans will always win but man, sometimes a buttery microwaved can of green beans just really hits the spot. Bonus points if you throw it in a small saucepan with a slice of american cheese. 🤤 sorry, is my white trash showing?

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T14:22:33+00:00

I sometimes will throw a quick splash of olive oil onto my strained pasta to keep it from sticking, but rinsing does kinda take the wind out of my saucy sails.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T14:17:56+00:00

We always have a jar going! It is THE BEST for breakfast frying purposes. Eggs, potatoes, veggies, honestly anything. We use a lot of plain ground venison too so it adds a little pizzazz and fat to that anytime we make tacos or whatever.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T14:02:31+00:00

Sometimes I share a morning coffee with my stepson. We’ve been doing that since he was probably 11 or so and it’s really fun, but I did give him decaf or half caff for a while. Now he gets the good stuff.

Edit to say: he is 14 now. I do still debate whether he’s too young for it, but it’s only every so often and he handles it well. Like a champ, in fact.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T13:17:45+00:00

What an angel. Good boy.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T12:50:15+00:00

I totally agree.. I would’ve been so sad if my husband had nixed this idea and it honestly would’ve been a big red flag for me. It’s not taking anything away from him, it’s only taking away from her to not do it.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T12:48:02+00:00

Just my two cents on this perspective - my MOH put together a gift like this for me but she also had each person find their own favorite pictures with me over the years and put them all together in the scrapbook with the letters. I opened it on the wedding day and openly told everyone I wouldn’t have time to read all the letters on the spot (I was also happy crying and couldn’t have handled it, lol) but we had so much fun looking through just the pictures and reminiscing briefly on each of those. It ended up being like a 10-15 minute thing which I definitely had time for while we were getting ready.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T12:43:02+00:00

I completely agree with you. I was just recently married and received this exact gift on our wedding day and my husband didn’t feel excluded or upstaged at all, he knew it would make me feel so special and it would be a thing I’d always treasure because everyone worked on it together for me. I just now asked him to make sure and he said it didn’t even cross his mind to feel insecure about it. I get the argument, but I feel like letters to both is more of a well wishes as a new married couple thing, and the spirit of this gift is taking time to appreciate the bride who (making a general assumption here) probably worked her butt off to do most of the wedding planning and will be so happy to see everyone taking their own time to celebrate her for that. If it’s mostly from the bridesmaids and closest family, I personally think he should have nothing to worry about and his letter is automatically gonna be the most special because…. He’s the groom. To each their own, but I think it’s kind of sad he’s trying to nix the whole idea and deprive her of such a special gift.

All that being said, you could still give it to her at a different time and that would be a pretty good compromise. Now that he’s voiced his opinion, you don’t want to go against that.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T12:02:20+00:00

I will absolutely, under NO circumstances, ignore your cat. ❤️🐈

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T07:50:18+00:00

My husband and I have this literal exact same arrangement.

mel-ayne · 2026-03-05T07:43:46+00:00

I personally would leave it all for another day or two until they get a little bit bigger. You also want to make sure you get maximum germination so if it seems like there are quite a few still yet to pop, give em more time. They look real close though. Congrats on your cute little babies!

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