So here we go again. I held off. Much later than I usually start things. This year though, winter is keeping a tight grip on things, apparently until the calendar says it is no longer winter. There is a light at the end of the time tunnel though: long term forecasts are showing that we might, possibly, have a day that edges over 32 degrees next week. Just as a tease. Every other day still shows highs in the 20s, but even that is 40 degrees warmer than it has been just in the last few weeks.
So the list above is just where I scratched out on the table (we cover it with butcher paper for the kids to draw on, and as a disposable table cloth for dinners, butchering, or seed starting and dirt) a list of the seeds I dropped into dirt this weekend, with Phoebe helping.
Basic supplies: Hydrated seed starting soil, recycled plastic clamshell containers from strawberries or greens, a spoon for scooping it all, seeds, Sharpie marker, masking tape.
Peppers were the ones I really had to start now. They take a bit longer than most other plants to get going, and even though I am not doing any mass plantings of long season ones, even the Jimmy Nardello peppers like a good 12 weeks of growing before I drop them in a garden for the summer. The holes you see in the soil I made with the ass end of the Sharpie marker.
Small fingers and sharp eyes are a nice attribute to have for this work. 4 to 5 seeds per spot. Lets you get a lot of seeds started, and once they have true leaves you just separate into individual growing cells.
Once you get to this point, you just gently push the edges of the soil over the seeds. Not much depth. Just want a bit of dirt over the top to hold moisture around the seeds while still allowing some air to be able to reach them as well without them drying out. A quick mist from a spray bottle and the containers are closed and go to shelves over our stove.
First to emerge were the cabbages. Planted on Saturday and here on Tuesday they are up. Tomatoes and peppers will take longer, but by the first real day of spring most of them should be ready to be potted up and the next round of seeds will be ready to drop into the dirt.
So the cabbages headed downstairs to the grow lights. In a few weeks there will be a few shelves of plants down there. For now, it is just the cabbages. Too cold down there for starting seeds, but works fine for the seedlings once they have emerged. Onward and upward! Another growing season is upon us.
How cool, seeing the seed packets laid out and only noticing a few purchased packets. Looks like most of the seed was home-saved. 🙂
I have shelves with shop higlts to start my indoor seeds, an activity that keeps me sane during the long COLD winters. I use trays with the domed plastic lids to keep humidity in. There are screened doors in the front to keep the cats out. The fluorescent higlts generate enough heat to help germination on the shelf above each light. I roll down a cover of plastic drop cloth over the front screen doors at night to hold the heat in, roll it up during the day when the house is warmer. I lay out all my seed packs and organize them into a shoebox with dividers labeled with the dates they should be started. I have learned from experience that it doesn’t pay to start them too early
Hi you guy’s! Although Spring is really trying to start, I have not yet started planting anything! I thought about all of you and knew you would have something to INSPIRE me about planting! You might well be aka “the unrelenting farmer”! A good lesson to us all, to do the same and plant, plant, plant! Hope all is well with everyone! Much Love! Sheila, the horses and kitties!
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