Seeds Started for the Garden

I can't resist those displays of vegetable and flower seeds at the Lowe's and Home Depot and Ace and TruPoint. All those packages with pictures of lucsious veggies and beautiful flowers are too much to resist. And the prices are so much less than buying them in the catalog.  I have discovered one however, the cheaper seeds in the stores cannot be purchased in the catalogs - that is the exact variety of seed. But that's OK. That just gives me an excuse to also buy from the catalogs.

Week old broccoli and tomato seedlings. Roma and Burpee Big Boy tomato, Waltham 29 broccoli

Last weekend, that is the last weekend in February, I started two big flats of seeds. Pictured above is the flat of broccoli and tomato seedlings one week later.  They were covered most of the week with one of those clear plastic dome lids to keep the moisture in and the cats out!  Both of these types of seeds sprout very quickly and grow very big.  I kept them on the kitchen counter under these reading lamps for about two days until I had a chance to set up my grow lights in the basement.  I didn't start them in the basement because its too cold down there to start the seedlings (about 55 degrees) but now that they are up and growing, the cooler temps will be all right.


Broccoli on the left and tomato seedlings on the right under florescent lights in the basement,

Sunday I finally had time to set up the fluorescent lights and move the plants to the basement. As you can see the seedling had started to lean looking for more light than those two reading lamps could give. By nightfall all the seedlings were standing straight and loving the light.

I also started a flat of herb seeds - which you can see behind the flat of broccoli and tomatoes. In that flat are parsley, Siam basil, sweet marjoram, chamomile, and thyme.  They are tiny little plants, not half an inch high which is not surprising since the seeds were all but dust, they were so small.  I will keep them in the light with their clear plastic lid in place until they are too tall for the lid.

As you might expect, I will have way too many plants from this small amount of seeding, but not to worry.  My garden club has an annual plant sale to raise money for the Lebanon Station.  Hopefully about half of these plants will be transferred to individual pots and become donations to the sale.  The rest will go into my garden.