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What seeds to start?

On these cold winter days, it’s always exciting to start planning your garden.

A few little sketches of what shrubs and perennials are already there, a few notes about heights, colors, and times of bloom. And then your list: available space, available sun, bloom time, new heights and colors, favorites, and desires…

With these few pages in hand, it makes diving into the newest seed catalog or running to your favorite garden center’s seed section work a little better for you. So often, I would buy whatever looked appealing, figuring - I’ll find a place. Sometimes this would work because the desire was so strong. More often, it was wasted effort. Sometimes it took many years of trying in vain – no matter how much I wanted it, 6 foot and taller Sunflowers were not going to thrive in my shady yard.

So after a few years of battles, I began to realize, I garden for enjoyment. Keep it enjoyable.

I keep my indoor seed starting pretty basic. I’ll let the nurseries take care of my tomato and pepper seedlings until I’m ready to purchase them at the end of May. I know many who start all their vegetables from seed and that’s great (especially when they share!). I have little space for storing inside and only a few windows offering enough sunlight. I pick seeds with a very good success rate – marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, cleome, blue salvia, hollyhocks, mallows, nasturtiums, morning glories. If you’ve noticed, I like big seeds. This is what works for me.

I like using the smaller peat pots available filled with a good quality seed starter mix. I love using the little dehydrated peat pots that are flat like a disc. You soak them in water any they expand to size filled already with dirt – how easy is that? I only place 1 seed in each container. If after 5-7 days there is no sign of germination toss another seed in the same pot. I’ve been saving - to re-use – the plastic containers that muffins and cookies come in. The ones that snap together. These make great mini greenhouses with bottoms that don’t leak. You will need quite a few – get your neighbors to save for you as well. The lids are great for keeping your seeds warm at night and increasing germination time. If you are hard pressed, tear the lids off to use as bottoms and cover at night with plastic wrap, newspaper, or even plastic cups. I like to uncover them during the day for circulation and to avoid baking in a strong sunny window. They will only get covered until they reach a height where covering them would disturb them. I try to keep the pots evenly moist. A spritzer bottle works best the first few days. The seeds will rot if they stay too wet. If the seedlings seem to be too big for their pot, transplant the whole pot into a new bigger peat pot filled with seed starter mix. As the days are warmer, it’s great to put your seedlings outside for a few hours. After your frost date, plant your entire pot right into the well-worked soil. If it’s a plant that will require staking, now is the time to get the stakes in too. There is always a chance of one or two more cold nights so be ready to cover your seedlings with paper or plastic bags or buckets --- just be sure to uncover in the morning or they will bake inside. On clear cold nights there is more danger of frost than on overcast nights. Wind is extremely dehydrating. Always be sure to keep your babies well watered if Mother Nature doesn’t provide.

Know your frost date, read the seed packages for starting times and enjoy!

1/18/01