Eggplants, Tomatillos, and Broccoli....Oh, My!

So I am moving on to starting my second round of seedlings...the eggplants and tomatillos.  When I mention broccoli I'm referring to my ongoing attempt to salvage what few seeds and sprouts I started after the first broccoli failure.  I think I may have solved my problem seeing that I now have a 2 inch broccoli sprouts reaching high into the sky!  Those were the ones that I had seeded directly into the pots while the ones I let germinate in moist paper towels and plastic bags were planted today.  What I decided to do this time around was add a bit of potting soil with my seed starting mix (about half and half) and also more vigorously tamper down the soil after planting.  So far, things are looking good.  I am hopeful that the little tweaks I made will prevent air from drying out my babies as they seemed to do to the last broccoli I had started.

Here are some photos of the process:

Those are my homemade newspaper pots and the new starting mix I made.  I followed a video on E-How to make my pots; they are very simple and there is a lot of other information and how-to's online.

This is the paper towel/plastic bag germination method.

Here are the tomatillo sprouts!

Using my marker as a hole puncher (soil tends to stick to my finger tend more than the slippery butt end of the marker).  Give it a try!





      
                                       Ready for the seedlings!

Tampering down the soil and hopefully, eliminating any trapped air pockets.







There you have it!  I will take pics of all my seedlings soon!
Off to the garden center for goodies!