#20: Start Growing Seeds

By mid-winter in this part of the world (that being the smelly but endearing Hamilton, Ontario), things are just gross. Going outside is nersty – streets are full of brown grainy slush, cars are coated in grime, shoes and pants grow salt stripes, and every living thing is buried in crusty old snow. Everything is depressing. 

Evidence: my backyard last week 

So it is no surprise that around this time of year, one of my favourite things to do is to go to a garden centre (most of which are totally deserted in winter, so the staff are very bored and chatty) and pick out a couple seeds to start growing indoors on the windowsill. All those cheap, brightly coloured packages, arranged on the spinner rack like candy...it actually makes me want to eat salads and make hemp bracelets.

I also enjoy the vast off-season gnome selection

Every year, at least half of my little sproutlings sadly die. Sometimes due to my negligence or lack of real gardening skills, sometimes the cat murders them, sometimes because they are just duds. So I’m always pretty proud of what actually survives to flowerhood.

Last year, it was red geraniums, a mixed bag of coleus, and pumpkins. My pumpkin plants were quickly devoured by the dastardly squirrels and rabbits once they were planted outside, but the flowers did ok. They didn’t bloom until late summer, however.

Some of my geraniums that lived 

So for 2013, I went on my little shopping spree early, in February. And at Wal-Mart, not at a nice garden centre. I was there buying milk, and I saw their little seed package display and I just couldn’t resist buying early. I guess some women have their shoes, and I have seeds. 

After a good 10 minutes browsing, I picked up: 2 packages of catnip seeds (this will be useful in completing #16), more coleus, geranium, and pumpkins, camomile, spinach, fancy multicolour carrots, and some weird flower that looks kind of like little pompoms and sounds like a disease you might pick up on an poorly-prepared trip down the Amazon called 'gomphrenia'. 

Since I’m not a real gardener, and I don’t have the space or inclination to mix up my own secret recipe of potting soil, I bought the dried out pellet things to plant the seeds in. I won’t lie, I also get these because it is fun watching them expand when you add water. Kind of like those little tablets you get at the dollar store that grow into big dinosaur-shaped sponges.

...you bunch better grow up to be beautiful and delicious, I  warn you! 

I’m hoping that by leaving these little dumplins’ in this sunny windowsill, I’ll have some healthy flowers and veggies to plant outside by May. We shall see.