2014 seed starting has begun!

I went into this weekend knowing that it was time to start my seeds for the year.  I have been thinking about it for a few weeks now.  It was finally time so I dug out my mini greenhouses that I purchased a few years ago.  Unfortunately, I found that one of my 8-piece containers has a few splits in it so I'll have to replace that.  I started what I could, though.

We now have both varieties of tomatoes, the cayenne and bell peppers, and basil in the large mini greenhouse.  Because we need them for companion planting, I filled the 8-piece container with petunia seeds.

After the monstrous bounty of cayenne peppers we grew and dehydrated this past year, we decided to grow fewer cayenne peppers, however, I do plan to harvest and replant seeds from an organic jalapeno (likely from MoM's) to grow those this year for a change of pace.  Because I didn't use an entire row devoted to cayenne, I had three pellets in the large box  that were vacant.  I decided to see if I could start sunflowers from seed this year.  Last year, I direct sowed them in their box and they took forever to grow.  We'll see if I can start them at home.  So, there's a gardening experiment to monitor.

Another interesting phenomenon was that as I expanded the seed starting pellets for the larger mini-greenhouse, they created entirely too much seed starting medium.  Even after tamping each segment down a little bit and filling in gaps, we had a lot left.  I ended up collecting the leftovers into two small Dixie cups.  To continue my theme of experimentation, I decided to try out our French Marigold seeds in there.  I've neither grown in Dixie cups nor started Marigold seeds so this is a double adventure.  We'll see how they go.

 

Once I get another smaller mini greenhouse or two, I'll start more marigolds, cosmos, and kale.  The watermelon and cucumber will follow in either late March or early April.