Seeds

We did it.  We ordered seed from a catalog.

Not a new concept, I know.  But one we have never done for our yard.  When we started our gardening adventures we began with already started plants from various stores and nursery. We tried germinating seeds in one of those plastic trays, but only ended up with dirt.  At that point we decided transplants were the way to go.  Last year, we again bought seeds.  This time we didn't mess with the trays, we just put them in the ground. We had some hits and misses.  The carrots were small, the squash got HUGE!!  The lettuces did well until the heat rolled in and they bolted.  Radishes were good (and this is from someone who never really liked radishes.)

So we've learned a few things, the most important being- we CAN grow from seed.  A while back we saw that our main nursery was changing seed suppliers and had dropped the old seeds to 50% off.  We went crazy, running from store to store digging through the pots of seeds.  And I do mean dig- instead of leaving them in the racks, they tossed the packets into pots.  We stocked up on what we knew we'd use, including plants we typically used transplants for, like tomatoes.  And last night, we went through all our seed packs, figured out what we could add, or didn't need, like tomatoes.  Some of what we ordered was for the chickens.  Some was cover crops that we have never found locally.  And a couple of things, well, they just looked fun.  Like the dragon carrots.

Now begins the process of making our own transplants.  Hubby found an interesting tip using newspaper instead of plastic pots.

He put some together this morning to see if the idea holds water, literally.  And it did.  You roll some newspaper (we're making good use of the property value assessment for the valley), fold in the bottom and add the soil.  When it's time to plant, open the bottom and stick the whole thing in the ground.  The newspaper will degrade in the ground and we won't disturb the roots to much.  

We're going to clear an area in the garage and set up some lights.  And in the meantime, we'll camp out by the mailbox waiting for our seeds to arrive.