Project #1: Seedlings: Days 2 and 3

Since I was at the store on the 1st (Canadian Tire, if you must know, which is the only place I've found so far that is carrying seeds this early) I picked up some flower seeds: Candy Stripe Cosmos; Viola (Comedy Mixed), and Dwarf Munstead Lavender.

They're all able to be grown in containers (I hope!) and I chose them to draw more bees and butterflies come Summer. Also, I figure that the lavender might have some other uses, such as in bathwater (or in cooking, if I'm feeling particularly adventurous).

Estimated germination times:

Cosmos: 7-10 days
Viola: 20-50 days
Lavender: 20-50 days

I'm keeping an eye out for Bee Balm. If I can't find any in the next month or so I suppose I'll have to order it online, which is an expense I don't need, but I'm determined to have the damn things.

Then, today, I was cutting up some fruit for breakfast and decided to try my hand at planting some more seeds. Unfortunately, the only two seeds I got from the Moro Blood Orange were both cut with the knife, one more severely than the other:

The two injured Moro Blood Orange seeds.

The organic Gala Apple seeds, with the exception of one, escaped unscathed:

The one seed now has an impressive scar to show the ladies but his life will never be the same.

 I put all the seeds in water to keep wet while I finished breakfast, and then later in the day I planted them. The orange seeds I put together, since they're both damaged anyway. The apple seeds I put in individual pots, labeling the cut one. I made up five apple pots all together, throwing away the other pips, since on the off-chance that they all sprout I don't actually need a forest of apple trees in my living room, even though that sounds really awesome.

I'm not sure about the germination times for the oranges and apples - I figure I'll just wait it out and see. If nothing happens, I'll try some other methods beyond simply planting them straight from the fruit.

A confession: I got impatient tonight (already!) and took a look at how the garlic was doing. It does seem to be growing a bit. I covered it back up with soil and am going to try to leave it alone now.