It’s Seed Starting Time Again!

There is snow on the ground and the wind chill today is about eleven degrees. One might think that I was rushing the season by starting seeds inside under the florescent lighting, and in some cases one might be right. But seeds come in many sizes, shapes, colors and environmental conditions and time necessary to stimulate germination. I would be almost a month early if I had started tomato or marigold seeds. There are some that require at least twelve weeks of lead time before the seedlings are ready to go into the garden though. Here is a picture of some of my seedlings that require a great deal of patience.

The sixpack on the top has five tiny Santa Cruz begonia seedlings. They have been growing for two weeks now. The sixpack on the right has English daisies. I have appreciated them growing in grassy areas in the UK and wanted to try them here. The sixpack on the left are pansies. The top left !xpot has dichondra seedlings. They will grow and drape down from pots of flowers on the deck. The top right pot has Kong coleus seedlings that are just now beginning to show their true leaves. The pot on the bottom right has a Lunar Red hibiscus. There are several of these growing so I may have some to give away. The pot on the bottom left has heliotrope seedlings that are almost ready to be transplanted into their own pots.

These starts have been growing under lights on the plant cart. Although our greenhouse has been reaching the mid sixties in the sun for the last few days, the nighttime temperatures inside the greenhouse have dropped into the low thirties. If I were to use the 240 volt heater to maintain a reasonable temperature at night, the cost woud be quite high. So for now the seedlings can grow under the much less expensive lights inside the house. I will keep an eye on the weather forecast to see when it might be time to begin using the greenhouse this spring. There are other plants growing under the lights too.

There are cuttings from last year’s Dragon Wing begonia and red geranium that spent most of the winter in the garage at 40 degrees or so. I brought them in and put them under the lights and they have really perked up. There is also a hellebore nestled in. We had that as a flowering house plant this winter and later I will add it to our other hellebores in the shade garden outside. The garage and greenhouse have their share of plants just waiting for spring.

Clockwise starting at the top left. Canna in the garage in it’s dormant state. The gerbera daisy is just getting by on limited sunshine coming though the grage window. A plastic bin is full of last year’s dahlia tubers, stored in peat moss. Five half whisky barrels are awaiting the arrival of half high blueberry bushes, to be shipped to us from New Jersey in late March. Another gerbera daisy may or may not last long enough to get to the warm weather. Dianthus is overwintering in the unheated greenhouse. Notice the temperature of 63 degrees at 11 am while it is 26 degrees outside with a wind chill of 11 degrees.

This is one of many experiments I am engaging in this growing season. Last fall I ordered (through eBay) a piece of a comfrey root. It was quite small when it arrived but it did have a tiny green bud showing, indicating that it was alive. I potted it up and stored it in the garage. Two weeks ago I brought it into the house and it took off growing. This is a plant that I became aware of by watching the BBC show, Gardener’s World, hosted by Monty Don. The plant has two functions in gardens. It has a long tap root that brings up nutrients from the subsoil. On top of that the leaves are high in nitrogen. It is a vigorous grower and so several times a year the leaves can be cut and used to create an organic fertilizer by soaking them in water for a couple of weeks. Another function is that the comfrey flowers are quite popular with pollinators.

Well, as you can tell, I am rearing to go for the upcoming gardening season. On top of my usual efforts and experiments in the garden I have a new endeavor. I have begun participating in the UNH Extension Master Gardener course. Our first class was this week and I am very excited to see what I will learn and be able to pass along to others. This course is a topic for a future blog though. Happy gardening!