Mid-40s! There’s actually a smell when I step outside. You know how frigid temperatures sanitize the air of any hope? Today I smell that good smell that says there’s still life under that whiteness.
And I needed to DO something. So I thought it would be a good time to start getting together the various stuff used to make my seed-starting mix.
There are all kinds of different recipes and philosophies about this, like most everything. I’ve never seen the need to sterilize or heat ingredients; never had a single problem with disease starting seedlings. And while I love to obsess over mixtures and ratios of ingredients, my wife pulled me around with an obvious but profound observation. She said that seeds in nature sprout and thrive in non-sterile garden soil. Do you really need to worry?
No. No I don’t. But I like to a little.
Anyway, I settled on a mix proportion for seed starting;
1 part vermiculite, 2 parts peat…
And 2 parts compost, chipped away from my compost ice block and defrosted…
defrosted compost
…and a dash of vermicompost just because.
All the rest of the tools of the trade…
And the finished product (It never seems possible for me to capture the character of earth-materials with a photo. This stuff is very light and fluffy, and those humongous bits are actually very small)…
Now I’m sitting here debating whether to start my onion seeds now (like the Jung Seed Co. suggests), or wait another month like the seed packet says.
Or hang on there…best of both worlds, do BOTH!
vegetablurb 