Seed Sowing

I have finished the first round of seed planting. Included were several kinds of heirloom tomatoes, peppers (4 kinds), herbs (parsley, catnip, cat grass, lavender, oregano, basil, and chives), onions (scallions and red ones), and probably something I am forgetting. The workbench in the basement looks like this now:

Yay, the cat grass (hey- not everything needs to be ate by me!) has sprouted! The cats seem excited, in the cat sort of way.

Finally, I just wanted to say that I have began working the bed for this year. It will be big. I didn't get any of that done last weekend, as we got 4 inches of snow, but we are just around the corner from spring. My poor cold weather onions, I think this might be the end of them.

Cheers!

Noel

Seed Planting is Just Around the Corner!

I am getting ready for the big planting. I have seeds on the way: tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, beans, squash, and tomatillas. One website I wanted to use was this one, but they are unable to fill any orders until next month! And they will probably be sold out of some of the seeds I wanted. I found another site, which is actually cheaper!

In preparation for starting seeds under the grow light in the basement, I have constructed newspaper pots, at the suggestion of the neighbor. I made probably 150 or so. I'll also get some peat pellets for some planters/mini greenhouses I got last year. I'll probably plant around 300-400 plants in the garden. Some, like onions will produce 1 vegetable. Others, like tomatoes could produce up to two dozen vegetables per plant. Likely, I will start too many seeds.

Anyways, if you are starting some seeds and want to make some paper pots, here's what I did. Take a large section of newspaper, with at least 2 or 3 sheets (to make it thick enough to be sturdy), and cut into thirds or fourths, depending on how tall you want them.

Find a small can or jar. I made the taller ones wrapped around a can of green chilies (I'm growing some this year). For some shorter ones, I used a small can of tomato paste. It got some newspaper ink on it. Oops.

After you wrap it around the can, tape it once or twice on the end, and then close one end like a wrapped gift. The closed end becomes the bottom (obviously).

The end product looks like this:

Fill with dirt, plant, and water seeds, and watch them grow. Newspaper is biodegradable and compostable, so if you want, you can put it straight in the ground! That's it for now. I'll let you know when I plant the seeds