Every season when the ground wakes up I find myself day dreaming of planting. Usually I can plant cold weather seeds the last week of March. This year I was not able to even get to the garden due to all of the snowfall. As the picture shows the snow is almost totally gone. Hooray!
I have all of my different lettuce and spinach seeds ready to go. These seeds are great for producing fresh salad greens. Arugula is great for adding zest and nuttiness to your salad. It is ready to harvest in about 30 days. Mesclun mix is so pretty and adds great texture. Spinach is so beneficial to your health. Lastly the lettuce mix has a great range of leaf color. When you harvest your salad it will be better than any salad in any high end restaurant. And you grew it yourself! I am hoping to get my lettuce in the ground on Wednesday.
I have a love for heirloom seeds. This year I have already started my tomato plants indoors. I am planting several varieties. San Marzano is an Italian paste tomato. Costoluto Genovese is a Italian slicer. Big Rainbow is huge and pretty. Mortgage Lifter is a large pink beefsteak tomato. Husky gold is a low acid tomato. And lastly red and yellow pear tomatoes. Sounds pretty good right? I thought I would show you how I start my seeds. It's really easy.
I use Jiffy peat pellets to start my seeds indoors. You can buy them at almost any discount store. I found these at Walmart. Peat pellets are inexpensive and cut down on extra planting steps.
All you have to do is put the pellets you need in a tray and fill it about a quarter of the way with water. The water soaks into the pellet and tada you have a peat pot.
You add two seeds to each peat pot and cover the tray with plastic wrap. I put my tray in a warm spot and wait for germination. This year I just let my tray sit on the kitchen counter. It only took 5 days and look what I have. Tomato seedlings!
I uncover the tray. At this point I will weed out the weaker seedling so I only have one seedling per pot. Then I put the trays on a shelf with a fluorescent light. Starting you own seeds indoors is super easy. It also is cost effective. Not to mention you can grow unique and different plants. This method works great for vegetables and flowers too. Give it a try. If I can do it anyone can!
10 comments:
We still have too much snow on the ground to warrant any early plantings. I am so jealous. I can't wait until we have the space for an actual garden.
We started our seeds this past week, too! Flowers only, but my son had a blast, and is excited to see them grow.
Yay! The snow is leaving! Those little peat pots are a great idea...I've never seen those before. Looks like I need to put them on my WalMart list.
I've been doing okay on my sugar/flour diet...but I've not been feeling too great lately. A little low on energy. Perhaps it's just Spring...I'm sleeping a lot. Even my nightly walks--which are usually energizing...feel like torture. I keep thinking: "Gee...a nice little piece of chocolate would pep me right up!" But I haven't succumbed. Lately, it's been tough, though. I'm craving sugar...help!!!
Living in town with a smallish shaded yard, I really envy you that big garden space. What good eats you'll have! :-)
Fresh vegetables right out of the garden are the best! However, we are probably not going to put in a garden this year. Already we are behind for setting out tomato plants. You have to get them in early here to beat the heat of summer.
Yummm, Yummmm, Yummm, I love Arugula, Spinach and just about any lettuce. Spinach has always been one of my favorite vegies since Popeye! Tomatoes are so beautiful, a variety is always best. We are suppose to be 50 degrees or better next week so hopefully we will have something showing above ground next week.
I have Spring fever so bad now LOL We moved to our new house at the end of summer last year and our new hosue has a GREAT spot for gardening. I have always had a garden out of necessity (food allergies and chemicals) but couldn't at our old house....HUGE draw back. I am so happy to be able to plant again. Isn't it peaceful and calming? I can't wait to show you pictures of where the planting is gonna go on this year. Thanks for the great blog. I always feel so rejuvenated after coming here and reading. Happy tomato planting :)
I need to get some seeds started! I have been saving my egg cartons all winter long for planting. Now if work would give me a break I could get it done!
since we moved to an apartment I hate that we don't have space for a garden, I will enjoy the progress of yours via blogland
I am about to post a blog post with planting questions (I did the jiffy thing too). My first time gardening. Please come take a look and see if you can answer my questions :) THANKS!
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