Friday, April 5, 2013

Starting From Seed

This year I decided I was going try to grow some vegetables from seed. I went to the store, looked at their selection, and bought two--spinach, which is a cool weather plant I could do right away, and Swiss chard for the warmer weather. Driving home I envisioned delicious bowls of greens freshly-picked from my patch in the back yard.

In this area, spinach seeds can be planted outside right after the first frost, which should be in mid-March. However, this year the cold weather wouldn't go away; on the first day of spring the temperature barely made it to freezing, and a little over a week later we had a foot of snow on the ground. Since Mother Nature wasn't cooperating I decided to start the seeds inside.

I started with a cardboard pulp egg carton. First I cut off the lid, then filled the cups almost to the top with potting soil, added three spinach seeds to each cup, and covered the seeds with a light layer of soil. I placed the bottom of the carton into the lid (which acted as a support) and watered the soil until the cardboard was soggy. Next, I set the carton on a baking sheet and slid the whole thing into a plastic bag to create a "greenhouse".  The makeshift greenhouse went on the east-facing window seat in the kitchen.

According to the packet, I could expect the seeds to germinate in 8-10 days. However, at the end of that period I only had two straggly sprouts, but since the weather still wasn't cooperating and it was too cold to plant things outside I took the plastic bag off and waited a couple more days. The extra time allowed a few more seeds to develop, so half the cups contained seedlings.

This week the nighttime temperatures finally rose above freezing; it was time to plant outside!

This afternoon I turned a section of the garden soil over, then cut the egg carton cups apart and planted them (even the empty ones--I'm quite the optimist) directly into the ground and watered the area well. The cardboard is biodegradable and should quickly fall apart. I hope it works. The packet of seeds was $1.35, though, so if it doesn't at least I'm not out a lot of money.

Five years ago today: New Thing #85--For The Birds

7 comments:

  1. I did the same thing with my lemon seeds and they've spouted. I'm so excited. I didn't know you could stick the whole thing into the ground. You're going to have such a fabulous garden.

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    1. I once grew a citrus tree (mine was grapefruit). However, it was a lot of work as it had to be moved in each year when the weather got cold.

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  2. Our ground is wat too cold, still. Spring will happen, and we all will have spinach and chard.

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  3. You have a green thumb for sure! It's also time to buy approved weed killer!

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    1. The last few years we've passed on using weed killer on the yard. It shows :-)

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  4. I am not much of a gardener but, surprisingly, all my kids are, so I get to watch their gardens grow and enjoy some of their bounty. You sound like you know what you are doing and your garden will be a good one.

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    1. I'm more of a gardener wannabe; I can Google information with the best of them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the critters get everything. I like trying, though.

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