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. 

Seed Starting 2014

It was so cold and snowy this year that I got my seed order in a little late. So, I'm starting them a little late too!  Thankfully Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds processed and shipped my seeds so quickly that I had them in under a week. 

What seeds did I buy?

Sleeping Beauty Melon

Russian Red Kale

Amarillo Carrot

Chinese Red Noodle Bean

Red Wing Lettuce Mix

Philadelphia Fish Pepper

Topepo Rosso Pepper

Black Hungarian Pepper

Red Romaine Lettuce - free gift!

Not everything needs to be started inside, but I wanted to get the three varieties of peppers a head start. 

How do you start seeds inside? It's easy. I repurposed a plastic lettuce box from the grocery store, poked a couple drainage holes in the bottom, and used the plastic lid as a tray. 

I bought Jiffy brand seed starting pellets at the garden store, soaked them in water to expand them to full size, put them in my repurposed lettuce box, and put 2-3 pepper seeds on top. Then I covered the box with plastic wrap and put it by the window. 

Pepper seeds germinate faster in light but some seeds prefer a darker environment. (Baker Creek seed packets have lots of helpful info on the back!) 

I was supposed to start these 8-10 weeks before the last frost date, but I figure better late than never. It's either this or get lazy and buy whatever plants they have at the neighborhood big box store. I really wanted to try some new things this year. 

I'm hoping to grow the Hungarian Black and Philadelphia Fish peppers (both hot peppers) in containers on my balcony. The balcony faces south, gets direct sun all day long, and can get pretty hot. Last year I had a great hot pepper harvest out there despite it being a cool, wet summer. 

Next week?

I'm planting the Amarillo carrots out in the garden.