Seeds: A Baby Plant, In a Box, with a Lunch
Seeds are amazing things. They contain a plant’s genetic material, a protective shell, and energy to grow.
All of the flowers we are growing this year we start from seed. Maybe one day in the future we’ll get fancy and do the tuberous stuff (ranunculus, dahlias, and the like), but for now we are keeping it simple. When I think of all of the different flower varieties and succession plantings we’ve got this year, however, it hardly seems straightforward!
Different flowers mature at different rates, have different germination times, and have different growing needs in general. So, we sow some varieties earlier, some later, and some multiple times. The first flowers we’ve starting seeding in early/mid March are: perennials (rudebeckia, yarrow, feverfew), long season annuals (china asters), and cold-hardy annuals (bells of ireland, snapdragons). A little later will come other fun things (amaranth, celosia, marigolds, zinnias - to name a few), and it’s hard not to get excited and just sow them all in their little trays. It’s a lot about timing - having plants big enough and ready to go outside and in the ground, but not so large as to stress out them in their small-celled flats.
In addition to growing flowers, Mark and I have a large homestead garden at the farm to feed ourselves and friends this summer. We both have a good bit of vegetable growing experience, so it’s a very familiar feeling to also seed flats of kale, collards, onions, and fennel.
This is a fun and hopeful time of year. All these seeds add up to a lot of potential - fields of flowers and rows of veggies come summer. We’re optimistic about the future for these little plants.