seed starts, round two

As I mentioned before, my original seeds starts did okay -- but my guess is a 1/3 or more will never make it to ground.  Yet I remain undaunted.  Yesterday my kindergartner was home on a school holiday and we started our second round of seeds in Burpee Eco-Friendly starter kits.

Last time I planted what I should have sowed into the ground (but couldn't because my raised bed wasn't built yet.)  This time we are planning ahead for starts that will go into the ground in May (tigger melons, sweet basil, sugar baby watermelons, and moon & stars watermelon) and in June (fish and anaheim peppers.) 

Last time I put the pellets straight into the ground.  This time I am thinking that I will have to "pot-up" so the seedlings get some size before they go to ground.  But first we get to wait and see what sprouts first....

Mother and daughter day

I spent a fun afternoon with my kindergartner in the garden today.  Together we put on a number of finishing touches to our raised veggie bed.  Our first task was to mark off squares for our square foot garden.  I decided to use ground stakes to do this since they were precut and in the lengths I needed.

To get the job done, we laid down two tape measurers and used 2x2 as a guideline to put our 2 foot stakes down.  Here is my daughter making sure things will line up.

Lately she has been really interested in becoming a scientist so she had a great time being technical and exact with her measurements.

After we placed the stakes, we set them into the dirt on their edges to make them more stable.

Afterwards, we placed two 1 foot long stakes perpendicularly to make our one foot square boxes.

Finally, we cut 1/2 inch PVC to length to make hoops for our bed -- my daughter even used the saw herself!  Then we put them in place and added the clamps we will use to hold down our cloth once the plants are in. 

And we were done.  The project turned out much better than my free-standing cold frame -- and my daughter was very pleased with her contribution (and so was I!)  Now we can't wait to plant....

We started our seeds

So I still don't have soil in my raised bed and it is already March 2. No problem. The kids and I sowed our first crops in pellets today. Hopefully the soil will be in the bed by time our veggies need to be planted.

Turns out the Burpee "ecofriendly" seed starting kit I bought was really easy to use. A little over 4 cups of warm water turned the dry pellets into dark, moist 2 inch seed beds in about a minute. (In my mind that process would have taken hours. In fact I got the first one started before naps even though we didn't start 'planting' until after my kindergartner returned from school because I was worried that the pellets wouldn't be ready for the seeds.) On a side note, Burpee claims that the trays and lids are made from plants. They feel like plastic. How is that possible?

In the end, I would say that starting seed pellets was not the least stressful task to take on with kids. At first, none of the kids seemed to understand what 'plant a row' meant. But we made it through. Each kid got their own seed (spinach, beets, fennel) and 10 pellets (2 rows) to plant -- then I did the rest (chard, peas, and flowers.) I am still not sure if I got it right. Are you supposed to cover the seeds with something? I did my best to get the seeds down in the center but so far have left them to their own devices.

Finally, I am proud to say that my garden window is being used for its intended purpose for the first time. Up until now it has been largely used as a dish drain.

So as behind as I feel in the planting department, I am now started. Looking forward to seeing some sprouts soon!

Newspaper seed pots

When I bought my epimediums yesterday, the grower said to plant them immediately.  Well, I need to remove some sod before I can plant and today is to be dedicated to getting my big raised bed into the ground -- so I am going to plan B, temporary repotting.  I remembered seeing these cute little paper seed pots in Organic Crops in Pots by Deborah Schneebeli-Morrell and I found out how to do them here in this video with Willi Galloway.  The basics (fold paper, roll, smoosh into pot shape) look like this:

And perhaps most important for me on a Saturday morning ... it is a kid friendly project.  Kids 4+ can help with the folding and rolling.  Kids 2+ can fill the pots with soil.

Unfortunately for me, these 3 inch newspaper seed pots were no where close to big enough to housing the epimediums (hairy roots, sticks, and green shoots -- perhaps these are rhizomes?)  So we ditched the pots in favor of an available box. 

We put in some potting soil, layered in the epimediums, and covered with more soil.  I figure this will buy me at least the week it might take before I can remove the sod and prepare the bed.  Veggies first!

My only concern with my repurposed box solution is the roots might grow together since they are so mature(though I did try to keep a layer of soil between each epimedium.)  But I think both the repurposed box and the newspaper pots could be used as future seed starting methods once I get started with my edible garden.

Anyone use newspaper seed pots or a repurposed box with words of wisdom to offer?