First Seeds Started!

It’s going to be a long time before the snow melts out at my garden plot.  And truthfully, I thought I had a few more weeks before I would need to start thinking about seed starting for 2010.  But then I saw that both Sylvie of Rappahannock Cook & Kitchen Gardner and Kathy of Skippy’s Vegetable Garden have started planting tomato seeds already.  It seems too early!  But their posts really made my garden blogger herd mentality kick in.  And according to Kathy’s extremely useful planting planner, it IS time to start pepper seeds.

So I started enough little pots to have 2 seedlings apiece of Corno di Toro sweet peppers and Señorita mild jalapeños (a variety I grew last year).  I also started a pot of Cherokee Purple tomato (replacing my Brandywine from last year), plus one pot apiece of Dr. Carolyn yellow cherry and last year’s Mystery Yellow tomato.  Contrary to the photo above, I’m actually keeping the pots in my bathroom (away from cold windows and close to my heating unit) until the seeds germinate.

I also started some basil and marigolds, since apparently they need to be started this early.  But I may need to invest in a few tools to help me harden off all these seedlings, which will get leggy after spending so many weeks indoors.  I’ve heard that having a fan blow on your indoor seedlings can help reduce legginess.  And I might also make myself a mini-coldframe out at the garden plot so that I can properly transition the seedlings from indoor to outdoor living in April, when (presumably) the snow will have receded and the threat of frost will have passed.

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