Spring! - Sort Of

Even though there's at least a couple feet of packed snow on the ground, more being added on a regular basis, we're still hitting below 0, and even got as cold as -20 for a low last week,  it's still feeling like spring to me around here.  We have a lot more light, it's getting light around 7am and dark around 7 pm, we are above zero during the day (and actually have a temperature difference between the high and low), and IT'S TIME TO START SEEDS!  After a long, cold, white, winter, nothing makes me more happy that to put my hands in the dirt again and see green growing things, even if it's only indoors.

I recently trudged outdoors to retrieve my seed starting trays and packs from the greenhouse. It's always a chore because the greenhouse is in an area where the snow doesn't get packed, luckily my husband had a small trail packed on the way out there, but if I stepped off of it (which I did a couple times) it was over knee deep powdery snow.  He had also shoveled around the door for me so that it could be opened. 

Not a great picture, but there was 2" of ice in the bottom of my trays, freezing all of my containers inside.  I had kept them under my planter and was apparently watering them all summer.  (note to self, put them up on the planters at the end of the season, it would be so much easier to get them later!)

I started some flowers mid February, Delphinium, Columbine, Pansy, Petunia, and Echinacea.   Yesterday I planted several herbs, thyme, basil, dill, cilantro, sage, and oregano.  I also planted several varieties of tomato to go out into the greenhouse.  I started Siletz, Oregon Spring, Early Tanana, Nova, Manitoba, Sungold and Sweetie cherry tomatoes and a few varieties of heirloom slicing tomato seeds I saved from my CSA, I have no idea what the varieties are though.  I grow determinate tomato varieties and early varieties to hopefully get some tomatoes in our short, cool growing season.  I have so far been very unsuccessful with tomatoes, so I'll keep you posted. 

I used a moistened organic seed starting mix, placed into packs of 9 saved from previous years, labeled and covered with plastic wrap. 

Then put them under regular florescent shop light placed 3-4 inches above the plants, lights on heating pads for 1-2 weeks until the starts have emerged, then uncover and remove the heating pad.