Starting Seeds

      I have been excited since I started this blog to start seeds for a small garden. Now by a small garden I actually mean that I have two types of plants that I am going to try and grow, but yah know, details. Also in all my excitment for this garden I have suddenly found myself running out of time to get these planted.

     In fact the seedlings should be going into the ground next weekend, but it will probebly end up being a few weeks after that.  However I wanted to let you know how I started my seeds so you can give yours a try as well if your going to try a garden this summer.


     So lets start with the plants that I decided to go ahead and try to grow. As I have mentioned before on the blog I want to grow heirloom seeds, and this is for a few reasons. The first reason is that they aren't genetically modified. I used to not care about genetically modified plants and food, until I started really looking into the subject and the more I learned, the less I liked the idea. Therefore to make sure that I knew that the seeds I had weren't genetically modified I decided to go with heirloom seeds. Another benefit of heirloom seeds are that heirloom seeds help prevent monocultures.

     So the two types of seeds I went with are pepperinchis which are mildly hot peppers. They are similar to a banana pepper, or at least what I have eaten which has been called a banana pepper. I actually can't tell the difference so it might be that banana peppers are pepperinchini just with a different name that is easier to pronounce.

     The other type of seed that I got is a heart of gold cantelope. The nice thing about both of these types of seeds are that not only are they heirloom but they are also organic as well.

So on to how to actually get the seedlings ready. To do this you need three things:

1. seeds

2. potting soil

3. pots (I used jiffy pots, so they can go right in the ground with the seedlings)

     So I started by putting the potting soil in a large bowl and then adding water to the soil. This is because the soil was fairly dry and you want to have moist soil when your starting your seedlings. I let the first bowl of soil sit and soak up the water, but you can use your hands to mix it up as well if you want to get started right away.

     I then seperated my pots, and split my seeds into piles. For the cantelope there were three to four seeds for a pot and with the pepperinchi there were two to three per pot. The pepperinchi I put in smaller pots and the melon seeds went into larger pots.

     From there I filled the pots up with soil most of the way and then added the seeds. From there you cover the seeds with about a half inch of soil and pat it down. You want your soil to be firm but not packed down. That would make it too hard for the seedling to punch up through the dirt when it sprouts.

     From here I put all the pots on tray. This is to contain any dirt or water that spills out of the pots. I put the tray in front of a window where the air will be warm through the day,and the pots will get plenty of sunlight. Then I added more water to the pots, because you want the seedlings to have enough water. Without it, your seeds won't sprout.

     At this point once your pots are set, you simply have to water and wait. Keep the dirt in your pots moist and wait to see if you seeds sprout. It isn't definate that the seeds will sprout but if you do these things you have the best chance.

     Generally seeds sprout within a few weeks of planting, however even if they don't sprout at first keep trying for a few weeks longer because I have heard of seeds that took six weeks to sprout.

     So there you go! Thats how you start your seeds. Have you started seeds yet for a garden this year? If not are you going to give a garden a try? What plants do you want in your garden? Also keep an eye out here for updates on the plants as they grow, and tommorow is the World Weekly Risk Report.

~Sara