Sow, What's The Big Deal?

Finally!  We are close enough to the frost date that I can get a few of the vegetable seeds planted.

I have five varieties this year that can be planted indoors between 12-8 weeks before the spring frost.  I had the itch all week do get this thing going, but decided to wait until Saturday.  My patience was rewarded with warm sunshine on my back and two giddy children ready to get their hands dirty.  Not that kids wanting to get dirty is a surprise, but after the week filled with dreary days, the sunshine was.

Tray #1 before the seeds.

Nice fluffy organic planting mix.

The plantings of the day:  Tomato, Lettuce, Leek, Red Pepper and Eggplant.

Each of my two boys, ages 5 & 3 helped out with the planting.  Little hands needed for little seeds.  I love having my kids help out.  They get so excited when I tell them we are going to be doing some planting.  But, before I can even get the words out, “Be careful, don’t drop the seed”, it’s gone.  The last thing I need are two different varieties coming up in the same tray cell or a tomato plant growing in the grass.  Oh well, such is the life of a dad.

When they finally get the seed in the right spot, I say with all the enthusiasm I can muster “good job”.  They beam with pride.  That is what makes gardening such a great activity for kids.  Don’t hog all the fun to youself if you have the opportunity to share with the little ones.

Water really well.  I use a fine mist spray bottle, so I don’t flood the seeds or move them around with heavy water flow.  But, as you can see I don’t hold back with the H2O.  (Hey, that rhymes!  Hope you were prepared to pick up the snazzy beats I’m layin’ down)

I have my labels ready for each row.  Being I am putting a dome cover on the trays until the seeds sprout I can’t stick them in quite yet.

The tray to the left is all lettuce, so I didn’t need to label it.

I am running a little experiment.  The tray on the right has a heating mat underneath and the tray on the left does not.  Each has the same type of lettuce in it.  So, lets see how big a difference the mat makes, if any.

Drum roll please.  I am going to attempt to knock your winter socks off.  These seeds went into the soil mid-day on Saturday the 28th.  I woke up today, Monday the 30th and went downstairs to give the seeds their morning drink, and about 75% of the lettuce has come up.  That’s less than 48 hours people!  I will say that the lettuce under the heating mat does seem to have more of the 75%, so depending on how well they do from this point on will dictate the importance of the mat.

Thanks to everyone for your comments.  To all the new followers of this blog, welcome and thank you so much.  I’ll try not to let you down.

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