Country Living in a Cariboo Valley: I Started My First Seeds of the Year

I took an hour late this morning to get some seeds going...last year I had some lights going in the basement and started a LOT of our own garden veggies down there. If anything, I think there will be more growing down there this year.

We are trying to grow as much of our own food as possible, and also supplement the food for the pigs and chickens as well. That means a big garden.

Root veggies do really well here, and I can just direct seed them once we can get in the garden to work the soil. Peas, beans, lettuces, chard, radish, kale, onion can also be direct seeded.

That still leaves some plants that need to be started inside, here's the list (probably incomplete)

tomatoes

pepper

zuccini

squash

cabbage

dill

broccoli

cauliflower

flowers

So today, I started 42 cabbage, 18 rudbeckia and 18 coreopsis. I'm DETERMINED to have actually flowers in my yard this year

! I've always been more of a flower gardener than a veggie gardener, and it has been hard to set that aside for the last two years. We've been totally concentrating on growing Food and expanding gardens to grow more Food.

So I have ideas for 2 medium sized flower beds and 1 big shady flower bed. They are on my "list of things to do" this year, and I'm going to try to get my 4 older chickens to help me with those projects.....more on that later.

Our basement is unfinished at this point, so I have commandeered a couple of areas for starting our plants. Here's a pic of my potting area in one room.....

I mostly use Styrofoam cups to start my seeds...just poke a hole in the bottom with a pen, fill them about two thirds with Sunshine Mix 4, water them, water them again in a minute. Then put the seed in, add a bit more S Mix, then tamp it down....water again.

We also save our cream containers as well as the great cans our beer kits come in...awesome to use those for tomatoes when it comes time to transplant them!