Indoor Seed-Starting

 I got back to planting seeds inside.  Last post, I had cleaned up the spill from "somecat" jumping on the stack of soil-filled trays and knocking half of them over.  What a MESS!

So I took the filled ones and planted 2 trays of seeds.  "Just 2" you ask?  Yeah...

It was all the stuff I had to do before planting them.  Well, if you go to a fast-food place, they don't start preparing for the assembly-line when the store opens.  They have to have everything ready to use for the first customer, right?

I started by sorting out my plant labels (I don't make new ones every year).  First, veggies vs flowers.  Then various types of each.  Flower labels are easy.  Annuals vs perennials.  Then common ones (Marigolds and Zinnias, etc) vs "fancy" (the ones you don't find on Walmart racks).  I bundled the categories with rubber bands.

Then I had to soak some of the filled trays with water.  The dry potting soil I mix myself takes a while to get wet (really).  

Then I had to check my list of starting dates.  I am behind a couple of weeks (as usual).  So I needed to plant seeds that should have been started earliest first.  It is 4 weeks til "last frost date", so I planted the -8 weeks to -6 weeks last night.  And I planted the common ones, just to get back into practice again.

Later today, I will catch up to -4 weeks and be current again.  

After that, I will tackle the more "exotic" flowers.  Those are trickier.  Those seeds can have some real odd requirements.  Some need to be planted deeply, some need to just be sprinkled on the surface.  Some need to be planted in soaked soil and then be left dry for a week.  Some need constant water.  Some need strong light, others want none at first.  Some need cool temps to germinate, others need Summer warmth.

There is a reason those flowers are not "common", LOL!  I move trays around the house a lot.  Some get set above warm floor vents, some get set in the colder garage.  Some get direct light on the planting stand, some have a towel other them for initial darkness.  It takes some time, but it is a hobby and obsessive attention to a hobby is self-justified.  😎

There is a reward though.  The "fancy" ones are fairly cheap as seeds but expensive to buy as seedlings.  And the ones I am trying to grow are ones that support beneficial or lovely insects (butterflies, bees, ladybugs, etc) for food or egg-laying.  And many support hummers and other interesting birds (some migratory).

So tomorrow, more seed-starting.  And some are nearly impossible to grow (for an amateur like me).  I have an order of 38 pollinator and meadow flower plants due to arrive in late April.  Sometimes, you just have to buy what you can't grow.