I have to say that I am so excited about officially starting the garden now! I feel quite satisfied with what we accomplished today! There is nothing like starting seeds, planting things, and getting your hands dirty. It’s the harvesting that I tend to get lazy with. That’s irrelevant right now though. We have officially started our first seeds for the 2023 garden! Not only that but we are prepared for starting the rest of the indoor seeds for 2023. We are doing a couple of onion experiments this year so I may need to get a few more seed packets so I can do my experiment in the Fall. I didn’t realize I ordered the small packet of seeds this year and although it says 250 seeds per packet, it did not seem like I got that many. We will see when they germinate, but I also wanted to plant seeds in the Fall so I will need more anyway!
We started a whole packet of Walla Walla seeds, and just over a packet of the Kelsae onion seeds. I started them in the plastic strawberry containers. I watched this video from MI Gardener and this video from GrowVeg which are about starting onions from seeds and growing onions. I am going to continue my search for information on the grow cycle of onions and what to do after they have sprouted. My onions germinated well last year, but then became leggy and never thickened up. We will see if we can change that this year though!
We did start the seeds about 3 weeks late. They should normally be started around mid-January. Getting out to the store for soil was a pain and I kept forgetting any time I was in the store, but better late than never! The boys helped me start the seeds this year. I plan to try to incorporate the kids as much as possible in the gardening experience so they can learn about where their food comes from and how to grow their own food.
To start the seeds, I filled the strawberry containers about two-thirds full with soil. The boys sprinkled the seeds over the soil and then I sprinkled soil on top of the seeds. We than watered the containers with Joseph’s play watering can since that is all I have right now to water seeds with. Then, we closed the lids and put the tray of containers into the plant stand. The seeds should start to germinate in about a week.
The boys also did a great job building the indoor greenhouse plant stands for me! They are so easy to put together and take apart. Last year we just took the stands apart and stored them in the giant garbage bags down in the basement which made it extremely easy for storage purposes for the future.
Joseph helped me fill up the reusable plastic cups with soil. We got ahead of the game and prepared the plastic cups for when it is time to start peppers later this month and tomatoes next month. All we need to do is grab the trays and start the seeds when it is time.
If you’re not sure when to start your seeds then I have 2 suggestions for you. Follow West Coast Seed Company on Facebook because they post seed starting reminders for general areas across Canada, like the picture above. These are February’s seeds to start.
You can also input your postal code or zip code into the Almanac planting calendar and they will give you an entire schedule for your specific area. You can start seeds by frost date or moon date with the Almanac. They also let you know whether to start them inside or if the seeds should be started outside.
The reason I use both is because not all of the seeds I want to start are in the Almanac planting calendar and some, like onions, only say to start by directly sowing outside, but if you want to start onions from a seed, you need to start in January!
Seeds to start in February
For us, the next seeds to plant in our indoor greenhouses are:
Peppers: Feb 17-Mar 3
Oregano: Feb 17-Mar 18
Rosemary: Feb 17-Mar 3
Thyme: Feb 17-Mar 18
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