Starting Seedlings for 2012

It had been months of staring at seed catalogues prior to this. Amongst the groups I'm a part of, there was this hilarious picture that describes my fanatical drooling over the photos in vegetable seed catalogues:

Here's a list of some of the seeds I have chosen to grow in 2012


Shiso Perilla (Korean sesame leaf)
Chinese Garlic Chive
Rainbow Mini bell peppers
Rainbow Full size bell peppers

acorn/Butternut squash (Got mixed up and I can't tell em apart)
turban squash

Long of naples squash (a gamble w.germination bult rare in the USA)

Orange hubbard squash

scarlet runner beans-prizewinner (photo to right)

Scarlet runner beans - DWARF Hestia

lavender

cilantro

Parsley

rainbow swiss chard

rainbow carrot

Thai basil

Italian Basil - regular

Italian spicy Globe basil

purple broccoli

Black Palm kale

tomatoes-plum

tomatoes-matina

marigold flower

Balsam flower

viola/Johnny jump up flower

Cosmos flower

I'm getting some Jalapeno and Zucchini from my friend Pam

and some currant bushes and borage from my friend Ed.

It looks like too much... and it probably is. I got the kids involved, and showed the technique of using a pen to make the hole, and leaving the holes until you're done with that seed type. This way, you know which cells already have seeds in them.

The girls are always super excited...

I let the little guy do the tomatoes in the jiffy pellets. Tomatoes are probably the easiest and most forgiving seed known to mankind. Break a sucker off the plant, throw it on the ground, and it grows! The seeds fall to the ground and you're practically overrun with tomatoes. It's a relative of the nightshade, which is a weed... if that's any indicator.

                                      Cliffs: Tomatoes are so easy a 3 yr old can kick butt at it.

I took the cell flats to my office where it's consistently warmer and sunnier, but left the tomato flat at home so the kids can see the sprouts when they come up. :)