It is official, the season has begun. Woo Hooo, Hooray, YaY and all those other celebratory words that are just too difficult to spell!
I squeezed some time into my busy schedule that if I waited for an opening would have happened maybe sometime in mid-November. So I decided, enough was enough with the busyness – my seeds need to come first.
The first thing I did was to find a seed tray to plant them in. This meant going outside in the dark to my shed and rummaging about by the light of the moon to find one that would do the job and race back inside before my poor body realised it was actually cold outside. The tray I grabbed hadn’t been used in a while and me being me, I didn’t wash it after I finished using it last time.
These first seeds are quite symbolic of the whole season and so I want to make sure they get off to the best start so I grabbed one of the kids old toothbrushes and filled the sink with a bleachy water and proceeded to scrub every little nook and cranny. If I’d thought about it – instead of fumbling about in the dark I would have realised I didn’t need a tray so big with so many nooks and crannys, but I was there now – cleaning it. I wasn’t going to go back out into the cold dark shed again.
I made labels out of an old milk bottle and set up a detailed spreadsheet on my computer to record all the activity.
I lined a tray with newspaper and left it to soak while I was doing all the scrubbing and then set about filling the seed tray with seed raising soil. Then came the momentous moment – putting actual seeds in the soil and covering them up! It is done. The growing season has begun!
They are now tucked up safe and sound in the top of the hot water cupboard which is a toasty warm 22°C which is perfect for peppers and chillies. But they won’t be able to stay in the dark cupboard forever. What I need to do is find a sunny warm spot for when the leaves pop up. But the most important thing is I am growing stuff again. Hip Hip Hooray. Let the fun begin.
Come again soon – the big shed is clean and tidy and I could probably build two greenhouses in the space!
Sarah the Gardener : o )
It is so much fun to watch the new seedling spring out of the ground. I think it may be an addiction. 🙂
Hi Keith. It might come as a bit of a surprise but when I checked my seeds 14 hours after sowing them – nothing had come up!
I love this whole growing from seed thing. I must have checked on them about 4 or 5 times today.
Cheers Sarah : o )
You are a day ahead of me, I spent the morning putting up my Green house. Wanted to get and plant some seeds, but um er need a bench or something to work on.. Might drag an old table into it for the time being! Thats a cool idea about using old milk containers, Thanks.
Hi Sharon. It is a great time to get the peppers and the chillies started, but I’d be cautious about the rest as it is still a few weeks too early for tomatoes and other summer crops. The weather is supposed to continue to be warm, however there are still frosts to come.
I need to think about shelves and tables in my new greenhouse. It has one bench, but I think by the time I get going I’m going to need more than one bench!
I also heard another great idea about using wooden clip pegs for labels and you can put them on the edge of the pot and when the plants get bigger you can put it on the plant. I think I might try that this year for some of the plants in the garden.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Oh Sharon – I forgot to add – take a photo of your seed tray with the labels incase something happens to the labels and you’ll be able to work out which is which. I also sow my seeds in alphabetical order, incase a label disaster happens.
This over cautiousness is from a lesson learnt the hard way.
Cheers Sarah : o )
For when they need to come up out of the dark–isn’t that what the new greenhouse is for?
Hi There. I know, but being the first seedlings of the season I kinda get a bit over protective. Sort of like your first new born child. It is still quite cold outside – what if the night time temperatures make my seedlings feel cold. I’d much rather have them in the house where I can take care of them.
I sow my seeds over the course of the next few months as some grow a lot easier and quicker so by the time the last lot get sown, there is no mollycoddling for these ones – sort of like your last born child, you know – you must be doing something right because your first born is still alive and thriving so the last child isn’t so over protected and left to his own devices a lot more, and of course he still thrives.
Besides I’m still figuring out how to put the greenhouse together. Getting hold of the instructions was a great help, but there is still a bit of effort ahead of me.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Lol, did you fill the WHOLE of that tray with chillis and peppers? You definitely need to get that greenhouse built now 🙂
Hi Elaine. In my past as an over enthusiastic novice gardener I probably would have filled the tray, however these days I am more restrained and have a detailed excel spreadsheet with how many I actually have room for, what varieties I’ll grow and then doubled it to allow for backups. The amount I actually sowed looks a bit pathetic in such a large seed tray!
Cheers Sarah : o )
It feels so good to be able to start planting seeds again. Do you leave the plants in those trays until you plant them out in the garden or do you repot in between? We have not long moved into our 3.5acre dream and I am having a lot of fun planning and helping hubby with the hard work of putting my plans into action. Enjoying reading your blog.
Hi Brenda. I just use the wee seed trays to save on seed raising mix, because I want to give them the best start, but I also sow a lot of seeds so need a lot of seed raising mix.
Seeds normally have enough goodness to get them going, but can’t stay in seed raising mix forever so once the seedlings get their first set of true leaves I move them to larger pots. They will probably get moved on once more before they eventually end up in the garden on Labour Weekend in October.
You should so love having enough space to grow whatever you want. Have fun, but try not to work your hubby too much at one time – I have found they tend to moan a bit. Good luck with it all.
Cheers Sarah : o )
The first hint of spring is just so exciting and motivating ay lol.
Hi Wendy. I love this time of year as there is so much hope and potential in the air and hopefully the mistakes of last season won’t be repeated.
Cheers Sarah : o )
Absolutely 🙂
Wow, you spend more time in the preparation than I ever do. I bet that is the difference in our results, too. Good gardening. I will be waiting to see the seeds coming up.
Hi Lucinda. I kind of get a bit carried away at the beginning of the season. The last plants to go in -in a couple of months time, generally get lobbed into a dirty pot with seed raising mix that I have scraped off the floor so I don’t need to buy a whole new pack for one load of seeds!
Cheers Sarah : o )
You are too funny!!
Thank you for sharing this article!
You are welcome. I hope you have a wonderful growing season. : o)