Seed Starting the Easy Way

This is one of my favorite times of year, I love when the promise of spring lets me justify playing in dirt. I love the magic of a seed popping itself out of the ground. The miracle of this never stops astounding me. As you can imagine, I spend the next couple of months in a kind of perpetual bliss.

Tonight, I spent most of the evening starting my cold weather seeds. Lots of different kinds of veggie and herb seeds. I choose to start most of all my plants indoors. There are a couple of reasons for this. First of all, it gives me a head start on the season. Additionally, it lets me have more control over their growing conditions. Before I go to plant them out in my raised beds, I'll know exactly what I have. This is important to me because I have limited space in my garden. By starting my seeds indoors, I can space them in my garden exactly how I want, I don't have to thin out plants and I don't have to worry about poor germination because I'll know that I all ready have a plant to put there. There are some seeds that don't do well being transplanted and are best suited directly planted in the garden. Some are obvious, such as root vegetables like carrots or radish. Some are less obvious, such as cilantro and corn. For the most part though, I put most of my plants into my garden as transplants.

Starting seeds inside is easy and doesn't require much special equipment. You can start your plants out in a lot of different containers. Personally, I use the seed trays that you can buy at a seed store. But butter tubs, yogurt containers, egg cartons even Dixie cups will work equally as well. Just make sure you have drainage holes in the bottom (and make sure you have this set in something to catch the drainage water.) Fill the container with a seed starting medium. I always buy this, you want it to be sterile and you don't want it to contain any fertilizer, organic or not. Seeds have all the nutrients it needs to get started, it can actually be detrimental for the plant to get too much food right after it sprouts. After they get their first set of true leaves, we will transplant these starts into larger containers, then we will give them some food.

After you've filled up the container with starter medium, place the seed in the medium. The seed package should tell you how deep to put the seed in. A good rule of thumb is the smaller seed the closer to the surface it should be planted, conversely the larger the seed the deeper it will go. A few seeds need sunlight to germinate, the package should tell you this. Make sure you label your seeds, I use whatever I have handy. Popsicle sticks make a cheap marker.

Now, you need to water the seeds. I always water my seeds from the bottom. Because I sell my extra plants, I need to make sure they are the correct plants, if I were to water from above, the medium could float into another tray. Also, once the seeds start to sprout, watering from above could facilitate a condition called damping off. So, I pour the water right into the drainage tray. The medium will soak the water up to the surface. Watch your containers for a couple of hours, adding water periodically until the surface of the containers show it's become damp.

It will take several days for your seeds to start to poke out of the soil, depending on the plant. Plants like lettuce should germinate in about 5 days, some like lavender germinate sporadically and could take up to two weeks. Be patient, during this waiting time, make sure the starter medium does not dry out. Find a happy balance, though, you don't want the seeds to be swimming in water either.

***I forgot to mention light. It is not necessary to have your seedlings in light to get them started. However, as soon as they start to sprout, put them in the sunniest location you can find. By a window or under grow lights will work, I've even taken my plants out in the morning and in again at night so get them in the sunlight.

Some of these plants, we will put outside soon after they get their true leaves (these will actually seem to you to be their second set of leaves, called the true leaves), such as the lettuce. Others we will transplant into larger containers and give them special treatment for a few more weeks in the house, such as tomato or eggplant.

Stay tuned, we are going to talk about how to plant in a cold frame and in a couple of posts, how to build a cold frame. They are easy and really useful for getting a jump start on the season.

Starting Perennial Seeds the Cold Moist Stratification Way

I love growing perennials. How can you not be grateful to a plant that returns year after year despite your neglect. Not only that but it gets larger and more beautiful along the way. I'm particularly enamored with perennials that are native. They are especially suited to the natural conditions of where i live and thrive despite my lack of care. So, you will tend to see a lot of posts on my blog about growing perennials.

This year, I've decided to start some perennials from seed. There are several ways to propagate plants, planting seeds is but one. Some of the seeds that I got don't require any pretreatment and I will just start them in seed starter when I'm ready. However, some of the seeds need to believe they have been in the ground over the winter in order to sprout. One way to do this is to actually plant them in the fall. This is a great way, it's easy and reliable. However, I want more control over where I plant the ones I'm keeping and also, plan to sell some of the extra plants. So, I'm going to start mine using cold, moist stratification. This will trick the seed into believing there has been a winter.

I'm experimenting with a couple of different ways to see which gives me better germination. The process is fairly simple but takes some advance planning. You need to start the seeds about 4-8 weeks in a cold place before you can plant them in your seed starter. All in all, this means it will take about 2-3 months before your seeds will actually germinate. To start the seeds you will need some baggies, paper towels and some sterilized medium - such as vermiculite or seed starter. I've chosen seed starter medium. Some seeds will need to be scarified before you start them, this means to scratch or weaken the seed casing. This should be noted on your seed packet if it is necessary.

For half of the seeds, I wet a piece of paper towel and just put the seeds directly on top of it. Make sure the paper towel is just damp and not soggy, once you put it in the plastic bag you do not want a lot of water sitting in the baggie. The water will not evaporate and you don't want your seeds sitting in water or they will rot, not sprout. For the other half of the seeds, I put a small amount of seed starter on the damp paper towel. I then placed the seeds on the medium, dampened a little more and then folded up the paper towel and put it in the baggie. Again, make sure the whole package is not too wet.

Then place in the refrigerator, I put mine in the fruit crisper drawer. They will be in here for several weeks, so you should check on them periodically. You want to make sure they don't dry out, or that they aren't staying too wet. Also, if they start to sprout while in the refrigerator go ahead and take them out of the refrigerator and plant them in whatever you are going to start them in.

In about 4-6 weeks, I'll be pulling these out and getting them planted in pots. So, stay tuned for more tutorials.

Food Politics

I was lucky enough to get to hear the wonderful author and food advocate Marion Nestle speak a couple of nights ago. If you are not familiar with her, you should take the time to become so. She is the nutrition chair at New York University, author of numerous books and host to the website Food Politics. Of her books, Food Politics is my favorite. It traces the complicated issue of how the food industry influences what food choices we have at the grocery store to eat. These issues are dictated by thirst for profit, not good nutritional policy. She also provides information to help consumers make good food choices for themselves and their families. Her newest book, Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine, is an investigative report on the March 2007 pet food recall.

In her talk, she spent some time talking about her new book Pet Food Politics. Even if you don't have an animal which you buy pet food for, this issue should be important to you. During her investigation, Nestle was able to trace how pet food contaminates ended up back in the human food system. Pet food has vital wheat gluten added to it to increase the protein. The vital wheat in the contaminated pet food was adulterated with melamine, which is an industry byproduct that is cheap and mimics protein. This adulterate was coming from China. Melamine was causing bladder and kidney problems in these animals. At least as important is how melamine was getting into the human food supply. It is common practice for scrap pet food to be sold as livestock feed. On this occasion, the melamine ended up being fed to chickens, cows and fish., which ended up being eaten by humans.

Marion Nestle advocated that this is just one more indicator that it is necessary for a comprehensive farm to table food policy in the United States. Currently, the FDA and USDA are independent entities that have become fairly toothless because of restrictive legislation from Congress. Until this changes, individuals have to make smart food choices for themselves. Buying organic is one choice people make to have more faith in their food. I think choosing to buy locally, from farmers you know is arguably, even more important. Small, local farms take pride in their products. They also have to personally back up any product that they sell to individuals because you are able to ask the farmer questions, pass on favorable and unfavorable critiques, and you know where to find them if there is a problem. A lot more people are choosing to supplement their local purchases by growing more of their own food. This is where my mindset is, so a lot of the blogs I will be posting will be focused on helping people be able to do this. If you must buy from a grocery store, try to minimize the processed foods. Whole foods have less chance of being adulterated. Besides foods taste better when you prepare them yourself and they are much healthier.

Deciphering Your Seed Catalog

Ok, you've gotten your seed catalogs. You're excited by all those gorgeous pictures but then you get down to the descriptions and you're not sure it's in your native language. Don't put the catalog down in frustration, just read the following definitions to those foreign words. You will be an expert before you know it.

Heirloom - means the plant is open-pollinated (non-hybrid) and the seed source goes back at least 50 years. These plants are very popular right now, and rightly so. Generally speaking, they are tastier, fun to collect and you can save their seed. So many of the hybrid varieties have been bred for a specific purpose, often smaller plants, durability when shipping, almost anything but flavor. The old heirloom varieties have been passed down from generation to generation because they performed well in gardens and because they had great flavor.

Open-pollinated - are varieties that grow true from seed. This means they are capable of producing seeds from this years plants, which will produce seedlings that are just like their parent plants. Hybrids are a cross between two varieties, which means if you were to save their seeds you could not be certain how those seeds would grow.

Determinate - this is a designation most often used when talking about tomato plants. It means their size is determined. They will only grow to a certain height and then they will stop growing. This is an advantage to some gardeners, especially those growing in small spaces or who container garden. They will also set most of their fruit at the same time, which will give you a large harvest all at once.

Indeterminate - these tomato plants will grow indefinitely, limited by the weather in your area. They can become very tall, although you can control this by pinching off the growing tip of your plant once it reaches the size you desire. The plant will then invest the rest of its energy bushing out and setting fruit. One of the advantages of indeterminate plants is they will continually produce blossoms, thus you can have fruit over a longer period. In general, indeterminate plants will start producing a little later than determinate plants but you will get tomatoes over more of the season.

organic - in the gardening world, organic means that no artificial chemicals have been used to produce the plant that gave the seed and that no chemicals have been used on the seed. This has become a contentious word for some. Since growing in popularity, the term has almost been co opted by the corporate world. There are many great farmers out there that grow in an organic manner and don't use chemicals but are not able to get their farm certified due to the extreme cost and red tape it takes to now a days be certified. Buy or trade seed from a source you trust. Thereby guaranteeing a seed that will germinate well and be free from pesticides and herbicides.

perennial - are plants that grow for 3 or more seasons. This will depend on your growing zone. If your winters are too cold, this plant could die over the winter and not return the next year. There are a lot more plants that are perennial in Florida than in South Dakota. I live in Kansas City, Missouri and often will find plants that are labeled perennials at my local nursery. When I look closer I realize they are only perennials up to zone 7. Since I'm a zone 5, they will not survive the winter where I live. Be careful of this term because it could be used misleadingly. There are only a few true perennials in the vegetable world, asparagus, artichoke, walking onions, and horseradish are a few. There are quite a few perennial fruits and herbs. Which brings up another thing to think about, some perennials will produce and live longer than others. Often you will hear the term short lived perennial, strawberries would qualify as a short lived perennial.

annuals- these are plants that grow from seed, set seed, spread their seed and die in the same season. Most of your vegetables fall under this category.

biennials - these are vegetables that will grow for two seasons before dying. They will produce and distribute their seeds in the second season. There a quite a few vegetables that are true biennials, although we treat them as annuals in our garden. They produce whatever it is we like to eat the first year. If you were to want to collect their seeds you would have to wait until the end of the next growing season to be able to do so. Onions, carrots, turnips and beets are biennials.

One word of caution, it is not really a definition, however, it is something to watch out for when buying seeds. If you want to get flower seeds and in the definition it says something like naturalizes easily, vigorous grower or self sows readily. Be prepared for a plant that will quickly take over your garden. This is the catalogs politically correct way of saying the plant can become weedlike. This could be a desirable trait in the right condition but it is definitely something you should be aware of.

Armed with this new knowledge, grab a highlighter and your catalog and pick some great varieties that are sure to be your new favorites.

Vermiculture for Your Garden

You eat right? Which means you make food waste, leftovers never to be eaten and peels and such. A recent study by the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that Americans generate roughly 30 million tons of food waste each year, which is about 12 percent of the total waste stream. All but about 2 percent of that food waste ends up in landfills; by comparison, 62 percent of yard waste is composted. While that food is rotting in the landfill, it is producing methane gas, a leading contributor to global warming. "But," you say,"you can't expect me to eat my potato peels." What can I as a conscientious eater do?

Well, one of the most obvious answers is for us to buy more locally and in smaller quantities but that blog post is for another day. Another answer is to get some chickens, a great way to turn your food scraps into eggs.

Or...you could get some worms. That's right worms. These little buggers chow down on kitchen scraps. One pound of worms will eat up to 4 lbs of food a week. They are easy to take care of and produce gold for you with a little amount of care.

"Gold!" you question me. "I don't believe you." Well, in my opinion they produce a resource more valuable than gold. You can use worm castings (a pc way of saying worm poo) as a super booster for your garden. It's wonderful to apply as a fertilizing mulch around the base of your plants. It is especially good for those nutrient hungry ones, such as tomatoes. Just make sure you don't put it right up against the plant stem. It can also be used to amend your garden soil and as a fertilizer in potting mix or to fertilize your household plants. One of my favorite ways to use worm castings is as a compost tea. Compost tea is easy to make and use. Simply add 1-2" of compost to your water can or rain barrel. Allow compost and water to "steep" for a day, mixing occasionally. Then water plants as you normally would. The resulting "tea" helps make nutrients already in the soil available to plants. And is great as a quick pick-me-up for your plants. A word of warning though, don't use this "tea" on really hot days, it could burn plants if it gets directly on their leaves. Use it early in the morning or on overcast days.

Now that I've convinced you, let's get started. First you need to acquire some worms. The absolute best worms for vermiculture is Red Wigglers (Eisema foetida). They are perfect for our worm composters for a variety of reasons. First of all, they are incredible composters. As mentioned before, they are the workhorses of the composting world, eating up to half their body weight a day. They also are surface feeders, getting their daily meals from the surface of your bin. They reproduce at a rate that would shame rabbits. Additionally, warm and cold don't bother them as much as many other kinds of worms. That being said, do not leave your compost bin in the direct heat of summer, the worms will cook. Not good. Also, don't leave you compost bin out in the freezing weather of winter, they will also freeze. Your kitchen is a great place to keep the bin (if noone minds), it makes it a convenient place to have it to add scraps to. The basement or garage are also excellent places to keep your composter.

It's easy to take care of your worms. Just make sure you provide a temperate place for them to live, change their bedding and feed them appropriate food and you should not have any problems with your worms. Worms can be fed a wide variety of things, vegetable peels, most kitchen scraps, fruit, breads and grains, tea bags, coffee grounds and filter, egg shells and even newspaper. There are some foods you should avoid, however. Never feed your worms any meat product, anything oily or greasy, anything dairy and avoid putting slick colored newspaper in with them. Crushed eggshells are a great addition to your bin periodically. It provides grit for the worms and helps them digest their food.

You need a bin for your worms to live in. It can be as elaborate or simple as you want. I'm going to give you plans to build a bin like have. I've been using this bin for over 5 years and it is as simple as it gets. First you need a plastic container, a lidded tub will work great. You don't want it to be too deep, remember they're surface feeders, and you don't want it to be clear, worms don't enjoy the light. You want a few very small holes in the bottom of your container for drainage, worms can become waterlogged. If you desire, you can put a piece of screening at the bottom to make sure the worms don't get out but I have never had a problem with this. Also, make sure that you have something underneath to catch this drainage. It makes great fertilizer. Now, shred up some paper - remember, nonglossy is best. You can also use cardboard, leaves, straw, dried grass or peat moss. Whatever you have on hand. Fill your container 2/3 the way up with the bedding. Every week or so, you will want to add more bedding. Your worms will actually eat it and turn it into compost also. Now, add your worms. You will also want to add a small amount of dirt and sand if you have it to get them started. Cover it with a lid, those little guys will try to escape if they are not getting enough food. All you have to do now is a little weekly maintenance and harvest your castings when you need it and you'll be a successful worm farmer.

Harvesting your castings can happen in a couple of ways. If you are opposed to digging around in the poo and are the patient type. You can use one of two ways. The first way is to only add food to one side of the bin, in about a week most all the worms will be on that side of the bin and you can just take out the compost from the other side and add some more bedding and be done with it. Or if you are not quite that patient, you can dump your bin out on a trashbag, spread it out a little and leave a light on. In about 24 hours, most all the worms will have migrated to the bottom of the pile. Take off the top of the pile to use as compost, put the rest that has the worms in it back in the bin, add more bedding and your done. Or for the hands on type, and my favorite way, is to just dump your bin out, grab a handful of castings and look for worms. A little secret, if there is still food in there you will find huge amounts of worms around and in this food. I would often pick up an apple core and there would be a hundred worms half buried in it. There will be no way for you to get all the worms completely out no matter which way you chose. If you are adding the compost into the garden all the better, they will work hard for you there also.

A couple of things to watch out for. If your worms start to die, make sure you've been feeding them enough, make sure your bedding isn't too dry or too soggy, make sure they aren't freezing or baking or that they don't need new bedding. If your bin starts to smell, this isn't normal. Make sure you aren't giving your worms too much food, that you aren't adding meat or dairy products, and that they have enough bedding. It is normal for small nematodes to grow in your bin. They are just helping your worms compost the food scraps. Flies or fruit flies are not normal. Make sure you are putting your food under a little bedding, that the lid stays on and that you are not over feeding your worms.


If you want more information Mary Applehof's book, Worms Ate My Garbage, is very useful. You can also google vermiculture or worm bins and pull up tons of information on the web.

Once you've become a successful worm farmer, share some of your worms with friends. Fill them in on the wonder of worm poo and why your garden looks so great.

Time to Order Your Seed Catalog

I know it doesn't even seem possible. Temperatures are below freezing and a lot of the country is up to their backsides in snow. However, it is time to order your seed catalog. There are a lot of things to consider when ordering your catalog because you want to get the best, most reliable seeds possible. It's easy to pick up a couple of packets of seeds at your local hardware store but it you want a great selection and reliable quality, go all out and order from a seed company. Besides, you will learn a lot about gardening and the specific plants from these catalogs.

I think of a couple of things when I'm thinking about what kinds of seeds I'll want, which is how i decide where i want to get catalogs from. The first is what kinds of vegetables do me and my family eat. There is no reason to buy eggplant seed if you've never even eaten one - unless you feel adventurous this season. I always try a couple of different vegetables every year. So, make a list. What kinds of vegetables do you love? What kinds of vegetables just taste so much better straight from the garden than from the back of an 18-wheeler that's just driven across the country (or now-a-days even further.) This category will probably include most all veggies, but there are some we know for sure. There is nothing like fresh lettuce (and nothing easier to grow) and nothing like eating tomatoes straight off of the vine.

So, now you should have one list, what kinds of vegetables and herbs you would like to grow. Next, consider what is important to you. For me I really enjoy growing heirloom varieties of vegetables. I love that they have a history, I love that they are usually more tasty (because they haven't been bred to ripen quicker, or last on that truck ride across the country), and i like that they are not genetically modified. So, I look for seed companies that carry a large selection of heirloom seeds. It is also important to me to try to get organic seed as often as possible. I order a lot of seed from seed savers and their members - sometimes it is seed they have collected from their backyard. I know chemicals have not been used on the seeds even though they are not certified organic. So, if i can i buy organic seeds if not, buy from a company (or better yet a person) that you are familiar with and know their growing practices. There are a lot of regulations and organizations that have been formed to have a tight hold on the organic certification process. This can make it very cost prohibitive for the small producer. (If you are using your seeds to make sprouts, please, buy certified organic!)

Now, that you have an idea of what kinds of seeds you'd like. We need to find some companies that carry seeds that meet those qualifications. You can google seed catalogs or you can choose from some of my favorites. I'll give you the low down on some great seed companies and their catalogs. There are a couple of companies that don't print paper catalogs and you'll have to order from them online. I'll give you a link to each of these companies and let you know how to get their catalogs.


My new favorite catalog this year is from Baker Heirloom Seeds. This is a gorgeous catalog. They have gone all out this year. Baker is a great place to order seeds from. They carry an incredibly large selection of heirloom seeds. They carry vegetables, herbs and flowers, many are rare and you won't find them anywhere else. You can request a catalog from their website.




My second favorite place to order seeds from is Seed Savers Exchange. They also carry an enormous selection of heirloom seeds. As a matter of fact, they have made it their mission to try to save as many varieties as possible. A great organization, a great catalog. The catalog gives you a lot of information about each variety. They also have a lot of rare varieties, which i love to try. You never know when you'll have a new favorite. You can request a catalog from their website.



Next, I get lots of seeds from Bountiful Gardens. This is an off shoot of John Jeavons and Ecological Action (of the grow biointensive movement.) I love John Jeavon's books, they are incredibly useful if you are trying to grow enough food to live on in a small area with no inputs that come off of your "farm." The seeds he offers are perfect for this type of growing. One thing this catalog offers that I absolutely love is variety packs. You can get one packet of carrot seeds that will contain 10 or 20 different varieties of open pollinated seeds. This is a great option for those with limited space and limited budgets that still want a variety of seeds. I highly recommend getting a Bountiful Gardens catalog.

A great place that does not have a print catalog but specializes in tomato seeds is Tomato Fest, my mother in law gave me a gift certificate to there last year. I ordered a lot of seed from them and will again this year. Great variety, great seed. check them out.

A couple of other good places to get catalogs are

Seeds of Change - they have a good selection of seed and gardening supplies. all of their seed is certified organic.

Johnny's Selected Seeds - they are starting to have more organic seeds. Carry mostly your standard varieties.

Territorial Seed Company - also has a large selection, some of which are open pollinated, some are organic.


Get those seed catalogs order, in one of the next couple of posts, we'll talk about what to look for when picking out seeds

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