seedy beginnings

Half way through March and still not much going on outside.  If spring is at a stand still outside due to cold weather, then I’ll give it a jump start inside with annual flower seeds.

I am more than a little late getting my seeds planted.  But it has been so cold and gray outside, and we are still 6 weeks away from the last frost date, that I kept putting it off.

Growing plants from seed has never been one of my favorite things to do.  Last year was the first time in years that I even tried, and surprisingly had success with my abundant crop of zinnias.  It is so hard to believe all of this beauty came from one pack of seeds.

So with last year’s success to inspire me, I plod on . . . knowing with lots of tender loving care, I can save lots of money on annuals, and have an endless riot of color in my garden and for making bouquets.

To find exotic colors and varieties of annual seeds, one must usually order them from a catalog.  Trying to keep costs down this year, I elected to buy only from a local nursery, and I luckily found these beautiful Zinnia ‘Purple Prince’ seeds and a similar color in snap dragons at the nursery.

I found these seed starter kits late last fall at the grocery store on clearance, for just $2, making it nice to have things already on hand this spring.

A bag of seed starting mix and I’m ready to go.

Maybe a few too many seeds landed in this pot.

The endless rows of seeded pots remind me of cookies lined up on a cooling rack.

Everything is labeled well . . . I hope.  I have a bad habit of forgetting and mixing things up after a little bit of time elapses.  I’ll rack that up to old age.

Everything is temporarily lined up on the dining room table which has been pushed over to the window.  But with a little bit of cleaning and rearranging, the trays will be redistributed around the house, one tray to each window.  A necessary management since my house gets poor light and I don’t have a heated green house or any grow lights.

Earlier in the week, outside in a raised bed, I sprinkled Nigella, Larkspur, and Poppy seeds since they are cold hardy.

I planted a tray of mixed and purple zinnias.  Another tray of mixed and purple snap dragons.  Then a tray of two heights of Bachelor’s Buttons.  A tray full of Four O’Clocks  and white zinnias, and a 72-pot tray of seeds I saved from last year’s Echinacea plants.  It is hard to imagine these barren brown pots will produce seedlings resulting in abundant beauty, but that is the hope that spring brings to our hearts and lives.

All in all, I sowed 260 pots of seeds.  A pack of seeds is the best deal and return that money can buy.