Seed Secrets & My Personal Seed Haul
The inside scoop on what my personal garden is made of
The equinox is almost HERE! Praise be! It’s boogie time babes - we are BUSY in the garden and greenhouse and I have ALL THE THINGS FOR YOU!
First of all, I’ve been deeeep diving on seeds lately and have a couple of articles HERE for you. Today, however, we will do a quick and dirty Cliff’s Notes style download on getting going with seeds (keep reading for this).
Also, keep reading to hear about my warm season seeds, where I ordered ALL my seeds, and what secret moves you should be making.
Hands-on Seed Sowing
I am doing an in-person workshop here in Tennessee on seed starting and it will be SO. FUN. YOU. MUST. COME! We’ll be at Bloomsbury Farm April 5th and will have seed trays and seeds and all the goodies. I’ll be sharing all my trade secrets and we’ll have farm tours and snacks and bevvies.
Snag a ticket for that HERE.
My personal seed order
My seed haul this year was … unfathomable. I basically went all-in on seeds (thank you Greta the Greenhouse!) and had the huge benefit of getting to know the folks over at Botanical Interests (who gave me some discounts for you!). I got to speak on stage for them at The Northwest Garden and Flower show in Seattle a couple of weeks ago (anyone follow along on my vegetable puppet journey?! Pictures below.) and truly love their team. I was representing small space solutions for veggie gardens, as well as my poker planting method of planning to replace the grocery store.
I’m loving Botanical Interests so much because of all the info on the seed packet itself and the insane gamut of testing they do on germination, growing conditions, etc. I’ve been buying their seeds for years, so it’s fun to get to know the inner workings better.
I ordered over $100 worth of seeds, starting with all the brassicas that I’ll transplant in just two short weeks. The hardening-off process has begun (my least favorite task) and we’re already into sowing warm-season veggies!
Here are screenshots of what I actually ordered if you want to join in the fun!
I have a code: BAILEYVT for a discount! You can get to their website HERE.
Right now in the garden
Currently, just at the precipice of spring, we can get some cool-weather plants going that will enjoy the ease into warmer weather. I’m putting in onions (don’t forget about my grow guide HERE), peas, kalettes, leeks, cauliflower, broccoli, and some nasturtium.
I’ve just sown some peppers and tomatoes in the greenhouse as well, giving them a long runway for getting mature enough to go outside in May(ish).
I stick to the classics when it comes to tomatoes - tried and true flavors and producers. All the fancy hybrids with funny names and stripes and weird colors tend to be flavorless.
I have a tomato grow guide in the works, as I think she’s such a diva and tend to get the most questions about tomatoes. They’re finicky! They also taste worlds different when homegrown.
Seed Secrets
With the seeds I’m sowing right now, I do have some fun quick tips!
🌱For peas, I prefer to soak them for 24 hours to allow their hard casing to soften a touch. You can reallllly jam a lot of seeds into one space when it comes to peas and this year even have a design client where we’re making a pea teepee for their kids to go into! I did this as well a couple years ago in a scrap of our yard. It’s ridiculously easy to make and so so joyful to experience.
🌿For Leeks, if you’re starting these from seed, some people say they need to be trimmed. Once they reach about 4 inches in height, trim them by 2 inches. This encourages root growth.
*If you do buy leeks from a nursery they’re typically multi-sown and sold in a huge clump. You can separate them to get much bigger leeks for the price of one!
🥕For carrots, they really like the dark and damp. Consider covering where you’ve sown them with burlap and watering below it each day. You have to keep an eye on them and uncover the patch as soon as you see germination, but it really helps get those pesky carrots going.
🍀For better germination: your seeds just want to be warm and wet. Keep them cozy and hydrated and they’ll do great! I add a very thin layer of vermiculate on top of all soil with seeds below to help the water stay in there.
🍄To fight fungus: dash some cinnamon on just-sown seed soil to keep fungus at bay. An old wives tale that I love!
👩🏻🌾To make your own seed-starting soil: combine topsoil, compost, coconut coir, and perlite.
That’s the fast and furious version of seed starting - don’t let it intimidate you!
If you have seed questions, leave them in the comments or maybe I’ll start a chat thread for us!