Springtime Seed Sowing, Inside and Out

Memories of last summer in the Brunswick Street Community Garden (with cat).

I think everyone is anxious for spring this year. Personally, I can't stop thinking about the garden, my planting plans for this year, and my successes (Beefmaster tomatoes) and failures (beets) of last year.   The weather is still a little chilly and unpredictable, but that hasn't stopped me from prepping the garden and sowing seeds. So far I've got purple bunching onions, Amarillo carrots, generic Burpee Nantes carrots, Red Russian kale, Lacinato kale, and the Baker Creek Red Wings lettuce mix in the ground. 

The garden is a lovely place to sit and relax in the spring. Bulbs are coming up, the rose bushes are showing signs of life, and the garden cats are frolicking. After putting in an hour or two of weeding and messing about, I sometimes allow myself ten or fifteen minutes to just relax on the bench and observe. 

Over the weekend I started some more seeds indoors. Can you grow romaine lettuce for transplanting? I'm going to find out. 

This time I repurposed a 3 part clear plastic egg carton by removing the top for use as a tray. The two remaining halves with egg indentations will serve as mini individual greenhouses. 

I poked holes in the bottoms of the egg indentations on one side to allow for drainage. 

And then I hydrated some more Jiffy seed starting peat pellets and squished them into the egg carton greenhouse. 

I put three Baker Creek Red Romaine seeds in each pellet, closed the top, and put the whole thing on the tray. I'm germinating these seeds on top of my refrigerator and will move them to the window once they sprout. 

I'll post an update on all of my seeds next week.