I love the potential that is offered in a pouch of seeds. I always entertain visions of me trudging out (the twenty feet) to the garden and picking deep green zucchinis and bright, happy strawberries. I think this might come from all of the Little House on the Prairie books I read as a kid. I have far too much faith in my own abilities.
Mr. Suburble, on the other hand, is sceptically supportive of my seed addiction. He knows about the dirt that inevitably gets spilled all over the laundry room (where my seedlings will be started). He’s heard me swear at shop lights and defective seeds and scraggly seedlings that don’t really want to live up to their potential. And he’s seen me proudly clutching lettuce – with a few holes in the leaves, nothing serious – as I announce that we’re having lettuce with a side of bugs for dinner.
But seeds…. oh, seeds are just unspoiled babies. They haven’t let anybody down (yet). And he just chuckles as I flip through the pages of the seed catalogues and get lost in my own gardening daydreams.
I just got my order from West Coast Seeds this week. I’m going to be growing a lot of the old favourites this year: zucchini, beets, cucumbers, peppers, squash, and all sorts of lettuce. My basil grew like stink last year, so I’m going to do it again.
I’m also going to go out on a limb and try this:
A coworker has a husband who grows things for a living, and he had success with watermelons last year in our zone. So I’m going to try it.
I haven’t told Mr Suburble, yet. His saying is, “You’re trying to turn a city lot into a hobby farm.”
Damn straight, I am.
But instead of setting out big rows of potatoes, I’m going to try to grow them in potato bags this year. I figure that these will offer me some saved space in the garden, and when they’re not too laden with dirt, they’ll be sort-of portable.
Yes, they look like pop up garbage cans or laundry bins from IKEA. I thought about “hacking” this from some sort of cheaper bin system, but really, these were pretty cheap. You get three for $20, and they come with reinforced handles and drainage holes.
I did see a pretty skookum set on Amazon, too, which I may buy if I have success this year. This potato bag set has a “harvesting window” on their sides, which is really cool if you want to grab a few potatoes for dinner:
I love how this product picture incorporates books AND gardening. Not a typical combination, but I’d like to know this person!
Finally, my oh-so-professional grow lights are getting ready to start encouraging some seedlings. Despite the fact that this looks completely hacked together – my cunning use of zap straps shows just how sophisticated this system is – this little shelf of shop lights does the job quite nicely! I am going to dig out the timer today and make sure that all of the bulbs are working, and then it’s go time!
Most of my veggies aren’t ready for an early start, but I’m going to start some annuals in order to give them a half decent start. The weather outside is as cold as it’s been all winter, but I can’t let that fool me. I’ll be starting some of my seeds in the next couple of weeks!
(Curious about frost dates? Read here.)
I’ll keep you posted on the progress of these little seedlings, as well as how successful my shop-light-grow-shelves do. In the meantime, tell me what you’re planting right now!
Some of my favourite garden posts from years prior:
This Year of Gardening: How did we do?
