Monday, February 18, 2013

Slaying the Jabberwock... With Seeds

"O frabjous day!  Callooh!  Callay!"

No... unfortunately, I did not slay the jabberwock with my vorpal blade.  But!

I did finally conquer the extreme unrest that comes with staring at snow all day long, wanting to do some gardening, and being unable to accomplish that desire.

My daughter and I went to Farmer Seed and Nursery, which is within walking distance of our home.  I loaded myself with seeds, and told my daughter to go ahead and pick a few flower seeds for her own garden.

We came back with a load of seed packets, as well as a shallow pot.  I then grabbed a few organic seeds I had managed to grab up at the grocery store while they were on sale.  I began arranging everything into what I felt was perfection, then gazed down at our loot.

Three cardboard egg cartons, a shallow clay pot, small paper bag (filled with seed starting discs), and over 14 seed packets

I was a happy girl.

You're probably wondering what in the heck I have egg cartons scattered around for.  My husband has been wondering the same thing for the past few months, no doubt worried that he had married a hoarder.

But no, he didn't.  

All of those egg cartons were saved specifically for starting seeds.  Why buy a bunch of plastic containers when you already have free access to eco friendly planters?  Each one of these cartons can hold 12 seed starting discs and can be treated like the jiffy pots we get when we buy transplants from the nursery.

I'm already planning which seeds go into which egg cartons, as you can see.

I really thought that was as far as it would go, but then I noticed that the seed packet holding the Anaheim Chile Pepper seeds had an indoor planting time of -

NOW!!!

In my joy, I danced around a bit, stumbling into various pieces of furniture and causing my daughter to erupt into giggles.  My joy may seem kind of strange to you, but you have to remember - this is Minnesota.  The earliest I expected to be able to start growing anything indoors was the second week of March.

I elected to plant the peppers in the same egg carton as the organic wheat grass I found.  The wheat grass will eventually be moved to the shallow pot that you see in the picture above, while the chiles will be placed outside.

wheat grass and Anaheim chile pepper seed packets atop an egg carton

I grabbed the seed starting discs and set them on a medium sized dinner plate.  I then poured water over them and waited for the discs to soak it all up.  I went through two rounds of pouring water, since there were 8 discs drinking it in.

8 seed starter discs sitting on a green plate filled with water

Ugly, right?

It sure is, but soon each one of those will be bursting with life.  I've set the carton on an East facing window sill.  I'd prefer South facing, but I have to take into account the safety of the plants in a given location, so east it is... I don't want to a) forget about them, or b) place them in a location that my dogs would disrupt through a desire to look out the window.

I still have 4 slots left for plants in this carton, but I haven't decided what to place there.  Some sort of herb, is as far as I've gotten.  Any ideas?

No mint, though... I planted plenty of that last year, and I have no fear of a dwindling supply!

Who knew that slaying an emotional jabberwock would be so simple?  The tiny terrarium I was given for Christmas, as well as these seeds - already ready to be planted - have done a very effective job.

"One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!"



**As you've probably figured out by now, I have a great love of Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky.

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