Backyard Gardener

Story and Photos by Kat Long/Contributing Writer

Have you ordered/bought/organized your seeds for this season? No? Don’t worry. You are not alone. I am not the backyard gardener for nothing. Gardening is a hobby for me with an added benefit of adding food, herbs and spices to my life. But I still keep it firmly in the hobby part of my life which means chaos reigns. Here are some tips if you are like me and want to add to your seed collection but have only an inkling of what you have currently.

Gathering Seeds Seed Starting

You like to buy seeds when they are cheap (thank you, Walmart); when you see something you would like to grow (FLOWERS!); the seeds from those beautiful catalogs and, of course, all the leftover seeds from years past. Grab them all and take them to a table in the house, or even a table outside the house, and give them a good sort. If they have a date on the package, start sorting by date and type of seed (veggies, herbs, flowers). That’s enough.

Now that they are sorted, ignore all that and buy what you want to get. Seriously, you can pull the seeds you want to try to grow this year from your existing stash, but you definitely have my permission to buy that beautiful purple sunflower in the seed catalog this year and grow it (even if you have all the sunflower seeds stored from last year’s crop). It’s OK. In fact, it’s wonderful. I store all of my leftover seeds in labeled Ziploc bags and cardboard boxes. When I don’t have room for all of them, I sort and share. Seed Swap announcement at the end.

Viability

Now that you know you have some older seeds, should you keep them? Will they germinate? The short answer is probably. If you have the room and the time, here is my favorite way to prove viable seed. Take 10 of the seeds and soak them overnight. In the morning, grab a paper towel and wet it down. Put the soaked seeds on the damp paper towel, fold it and put it in a plastic bag or Ziploc. Leave the bag open, but keep the paper towel damp. Any spray bottle will work to mist it down once or twice a day. In four or five days, take the paper towel out and open it up. Examine the seeds closely. Do any of them have a little tail sticking out? Or maybe just look a little fuzzy? If so, close the paper towel back up and repeat the process for a few more days. Any of the seeds with tails at the end of six to eight days should be given a chance. Also, the ratio of sprouted seeds to non-sprouted is your sprouting rate for the rest of the same seeds (two of the 10 sprouting is a 20% sprout rate).

I have started tomatoes and peppers at the end of February with the hope they can go out mid-April. Again, my favorite way of starting seeds is in a cardboard egg carton, with eggshells and some seed starting medium. We eat a lot of eggs, but it still takes some time to gather 24 eggshells. I don’t rinse them before I plop them into the carton. Then I just add the seed starter soil right in each one. Mist or spray until the soil is very damp. I use three seeds per eggshell and cover with more seed starting mixture. Mist again until damp. Put the egg carton into a plastic sack in a warm spot away from sun and put a plastic bag or some type of barrier underneath to stop water from seeping out the bottom.

If you are using a seedling tray, a great way to retain moisture during the germination process is to Saran Wrap the top of the seedling tray or wrap in a plastic grocery bag, trapping warm air and water droplets in with the seeds. As your seedlings grow, remove the plastic and use high, even lighting over the top of them instead of trying to use natural light from a window. Window light from one direction can make seedlings “leggy” and weaken the overall plant. You can get an LED light bar from any hardware store in town and place the seedlings directly under so they grow up. If more than one seed sprouts, you can always separate seedlings when they get a bit bigger.

Keep the gardening magazines handy in case more snow heads our way this month. March is always an interesting windy/rainy/maybe cold kind of month. Maybe. And mark your calendar for Saturday, April 2 and attend The Seed Swap @ City Central The Link, 10 a.m. to 1p.m. Bring seeds to swap or just come and pick up seeds and chat with some gardeners. If you have extra seedlings or want to share plants, feel free to bring those too. We have a lot of fun and you might learn something. And of course, Happy Gardening!

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